


Stuck on You

by DangersUntoldHardshipsUnnumbered, thebraveandthebroiled



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Butch kara, F/F, farm au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-03-21 00:20:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 49,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13729146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangersUntoldHardshipsUnnumbered/pseuds/DangersUntoldHardshipsUnnumbered, https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebraveandthebroiled/pseuds/thebraveandthebroiled
Summary: Farmer Kara and City Girl Lena Supercorp, Inspired by this wonderful art of foleypdx on tumblr:  https://foleypdx.tumblr.com/post/169371138432/foleypdx-i-sort-of-blame-seabiscuits-us-forAlso since I mention a lot of country artists and songs in this fic I have a playlist here which will of course continue to expand as I add to the fic.  Please enjoy:https://myspace.com/jengiacalone/mixes/stuck-on-you-722461





	1. Chapter 1

Lena Luthor hated to fly.

She could have gotten her chopper to take her the distance from the city to UGA in Athens, but despite all the statistics about it being the safest way to travel, Lena did not care for heights one bit and would not get in a helicopter unless there was really no better option.  And she considered sitting in the driver’s seat of a Beamer with the top down and the wind in her hair, with no chauffeur, no assistant, and no sycophants, a much better option.

No, she was free as a bird, out on the interstate, with her foot on the gas and some cheeseball country rock on the satellite radio to go with the mood of all these wheat fields she was driving past at a mildly illegal speed.  She liked driving herself, something she didn’t do often mostly for practicality’s sake.

Except that there was one problem.  She’d been lost in thought about her presentation, had missed the last rest stop and had thought it wasn’t a big deal, that there would be one soon, and well, there hadn’t been.  She was needing a  bathroom and the car was needing a fill-up.  She cursed herself, looking at the needle drifting dangerously close to empty and wondering how many more miles she had before the whole thing gave out.

Siri seemed to think the nearest fill station was almost twenty miles away and it looked like the route involved getting off of the next exit and winding around a bunch of little back roads.  Sighing, she got off the exit and followed the directions through along a bunch of seemingly endless roads that all looked more or less the same.

_“In a quarter mile, turn left… your destination is on the right.”_

Lena arrived at the corner of Wheat Field and Bean Field, with no gas station in sight, and a car that was running on fumes.  

_“You have arrived at your destination.”_

She cursed.  She decided to turn around and head back to the highway, so after hunting a good mile for the next available driveway, she pulled into a long, dirt path that led up to a farmhouse, preparing to turn around.  She got about fifty feet before the engine sputtered and the car resolutely stopped where it was.

Shit.

She’d left early enough that she could probably still have the chopper come out and retrieve her, possibly.  There was still the matter of being stalled in some strange farmer’s dirt driveway.  She could see the house a little ways up, and in front of that, a big barn.  It wasn’t a long walk, although it would be in her Ferragamos.  She cursed again.  She wasn’t opposed to getting a little dirty, she just wasn’t dressed for it.

She was wearing that black silk dress, the one with the subtle floral print, the one that made her look classy but approachable, and a bit sexy but not slutty.  She trudged up the dusty, rutted path toward the farmhouse.  So vibey, she thought.  This wouldn’t be so bad if she was dressed for it.

She made her wobbly way up to the barn, since it was closest.  The familiar strains of Sugarland’s “Stuck Like Glue” was drifting out of it, and as she approached, a bale of hay went flying from the open barn doors into the back of the pickup truck parked in front of it.  “Er, hello?” she called.

Another bale came flying out and landed in the back of the truck.  Lena drew closer.

A moment later, a figure emerged; tall, fit, tan, in jeans, workboots and a tank top, barehanding two bales of hay, one under each arm.  She watched as they effortlessly tossed the two bales into the truck.  Without the bales, Lena got a better look at the shape; long legs, slender waist, broad, muscular shoulders and a perfectly round backside.  It was a girl.  And she was built like a–

“Hi there!”  She turned to face Lena, took off her trucker’s cap, wiped her forehead with a bandana she pulled from her back pocket, and smiled.  “Thought I heard someone out here.”  Her blond hair was cropped short, and she looked like everything wholesome in the world.  As she strode toward her in long, easy strides, Lena could see those blue eyes like night sky, and a smile like sunshine.  A little cloud passed over that sunshine.  “You’re not from Monsanto, are you?”

“No,” Lena answered.  

“John Deere?”

“No.”

The young woman extended her hand.  “Then it’s great to meet you.  I’m Kara Danvers.  This is my family’s farm.”  Her hand was warm in Lena’s and her grip was as firm and sure as any hand Lena had ever shaken.  “What can I do for you?”

 _Get your shit together, Lena.  For the love of god do not stare at her despite the fact that she is effortlessly dripping sex appeal._   She thumbed back towards her car.  “I’m just looking for a place to gas up and my GPS seemed to think there was a gas station here, but I don’t see anything but wheat fields, and I’m officially out of gas.  I don’t want to trouble you, but–”

“No trouble,” Kara interrupted with a grin.  “You’re not the first person to get turned around over here looking for a gas station that hasn’t been there in ten years.  We’ll get you up and running again, don’t you worry.”  She hooked her thumbs in her belt loops.  “I guess you’re in a hurry, and probably going someplace important, dressed up all nice like that.  Say, what’d you say your name was?”

Lena couldn’t help grinning back at her.  It was infectious.  “I, uh, I didn’t.  It’s Lena.  And yes, I’m in a little bit of a hurry.  I’m on my way to give a presentation at UGA.  I left myself plenty of time, but I’m in a bit of trouble now.”

Kara glanced down at Lena’s shoes.  “Alright, I’ve got a gas can in the shed out back.  So let’s get you into the truck and we’ll get you to where the real gas station is.”

Lena started walking unsteadily across the uneven dirt toward the pickup truck.  She was still slightly stuck on how easily Kara had been tossing those bales around.  But at least she was back on track now.  She sent a text ahead to the professors at the UGA, letting them know that she would still be in time for the presentation but that she was having some car trouble.

Kara, meanwhile, was jogging easily back toward a smaller shed behind the house.  She leapt two split-rail fences on her way.  Lena couldn’t help a little lip-bite watching her go.  _I could get used to watching her go,_  she thought.  Kara returned a moment later as Lena was still picking her way across the rutted dirt.  She tossed the gas can into the back of the truck and then paused next to Lena and asked, “Um, do you mind?  It’ll just be faster.”

Lena was confused.  “Huh?”

Kara bent down, picked her up, and carried her over to the truck.  She set Lena down to open the passenger door, and then took her by the waist and lifted her up into it.

Lena’s heart skipped a little.  Kara smelled like fresh air and hay and sunshine and a little bit sweat but not in an entirely unpleasant way.  And god _damn_ , she was strong.  Kara climbed into the driver’s seat and headed back out toward the road.  Lena tried not to get caught looking at her suntanned shoulders, or wondering if the buzzed part of her hair that stuck out under her trucker’s cap was as silky as it looked. 

“So what’s your presentation about?” Kara asked as they headed down the long, wheat-lined country road.

“It’s uh, about GMOs in staple crops like soy and wheat.”

“Y’all don’t need to be scared of genetic modification,” Kara drawled, managing the truck with one hand and the other arm resting in the window.  “I mean, maybe the way y’all do it could be better, but hell.  I modify my own wheat.”  She flicked the radio on, good old local country radio, playing some Merle Haggard as the fields and the sky stretched out in front of them.  

Lena couldn’t help her surprise.“You do?”

“Sure.  I mean, straight up simple cross-breeding, that’s genetic modification, for sure.  Humanity has always bred for the traits they wanted in plants and animals.  I mean, I’m talkin’ even before Gregor Mendel and the pea plants.  But I’ve spliced together a new strain that doesn’t even need any Round-Up to keep the pests off.”  She looked pleased with herself.  “That’s why I asked if you were from Monsanto.  They’re all about their formulas.  They don’t like you swimmin’ in their soup.”

Lena laughed out loud.  Jesus, what were the odds?  Built like a Greek goddess  _and_  casually engineering pest-resistant wheat in her barn?  “No, they sure don’t.”  She gazed out the window at the monotony of the passing rows of crops, to avoid drooling too much.  “So why’d you ask if I was from John Deere?”

“Well,” Kara chuckled.  “They’re not too fond of me either.  It’s a crime the way they have those tractors locked so only a Deere rep can do the repairs and then gouge you for ‘em.  I may have cracked the code on a couple of ‘em and fixed them myself.”  She glanced at Lena with a sly little grin.  “But I didn’t tell you that.” 

Lena chuckled.  She was feeling less and less like she wanted to make it to that presentation.

**

By the time they got to the gas station and then back to Lena’s car, and filled it up, Lena had learned all kinds of things about this big, beautiful slab of woman; she was humble (mostly), modest, she was gayer than Christmas but the locals loved her anyhow because she could fix their tractors, she loved farming, loved science, loved nature, loved Dolly Parton and was better at calculus than most people that Lena associated with at the doctoral level.  “You know,” Lena observed as Kara was finishing filling her car, “you could do very well in the sciences, working at a company like mine.”

Kara smiled, and Lena’s heart fluttered a little at the way her eyes seemed to turn bluer when she looked at them.  “Yeah but… I like my privacy, and my sunshine, and my fresh air, and the freedom to do as I please.  I don’t need money or that kind of success.  I mean…”  She paused, favoring Lena with a long, appreciative glance, “it looks real good on you, but… I’m just not made that way.”

Lena took a card out of her purse with her number on it.  “Call me if you change your mind, will you?”

Kara shook her head, and her eyes were fixed on Lena now, and Lena was holding onto the side of her car because her knees were feeling a little funny.  “How ‘bout I don’t change my mind, but I call you anyway, ‘cause Atlanta ain’t that far if you know where you’re going and you’ve got a full tank of gas?”

Lena blushed.  “You do that, Miss Danvers.”

“I will, Miss Luthor.”

Lena drove away, her heart singing a ridiculous, cheeseball country song and loving it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, I wasn't sure if I was going to continue with this but thebraveandthebroiled convinced me, so off we go! :D

The Danvers family farm was about 900 acres.  Mostly blueberries and corn, but they grew some wheat and soybeans too.  The soybeans and wheat were mostly for the Danvers parents’ classes at the university: they were science professors at the local A&M, and they taught a few different relevant courses on farming and cross-breeding.  The middle-sized shed behind the house was the one dedicated to their personal labs, and it was the one in which Kara spent most of her time when she wasn’t working the actual farm or hauling produce to the farmer’s market in Atlanta.  

She she was peering, with her naked eye, at a small tube full of clear liquid.

“So are you gonna call her?” Iris was asking.  Iris was parked on a stool behind her, watching her work.  

Kara frowned.  She really wanted to see this soybean plant take her mod the way the wheat had, and it wasn’t cooperating.  “Barry, did you centrifuge those samp–”

She didn’t even finish her sentence and Barry was standing behind her, holding two test tubes.  “Yep.  Shook up real good, just how you like ‘em.”  He was grinning.  Barry was a neighbor and if she had a best friend in the world apart from her sister Alex, it was probably him.  They’d known each other since they were both knee high to a grasshopper, when the Danvers family first adopted her, and they had been sneaking into neighbors’ yards, doing inadvisable science experiments, and spilling ice cream on each other ever since.

Iris rolled her eyes and Kara took the two tubes from him and placed them in the clear propylene test tube rack next to the one she’d been musing over.  “Nerd.”

Barry gave Iris a peck on the cheek.  Kara scribbled some notes on a piece of paper on the countertop.  She turned around to the face them, but only Iris was standing there.

“Anyway, yeah… I don’t know if I’m gonna call her.”

“She’s real pretty,” Barry called down from the hayloft.  “I saw her when Kara brought her to the filling station yesterday.”

Kara glanced up.  He was sitting at the edge, feet dangling over the side.  

“Oh is she?” Iris shot back, teasingly.

Barry nodded.  “Sure is.  Not as pretty as you, though, baby.  She’s a real city girl.  Atlanta, right Kara?”

Kara sighed.  “Well, it’s actually worse than that.  Her company has an office in Atlanta but it looks like she’s based in… California.”

Iris gasped.  “City girl is one thing, but a … a Yankee?  Not even a Yankee, a Coastie?”  She feigned horror.  “The humanity!  What will Ma and Pa Danvers say?”

Kara laughed.  “C’mon, Iris.  I don’t even know if I’m gonna call her.  I’m busy enough with my nice little quiet life out here.”

Barry snorted.  “You didn’t see how that girl was looking at her, Iris.  She looked thirsty as all get-out and Kara was like a tall drink of water.”  He drew out those last few words, swinging his legs back and forth as he drawled them out.

Kara gave him the finger.  “Like you know anything about girls, Flash Allen.  I practically had to shove you into Iris’s arms.”

Iris winked at him.  “She’s got you there, Barry.  You were so busy obsessing over the soil pH out by the dam, you didn’t even notice I was practically throwing my damn self at you.”

“Now, listen–” Barry began, and then launched into a treatise on the importance of the soil pH in the river valley and how he had a theory that the fields in the surrounding area were likely to see a 14% increase in yield if they could find a way to address it.  He moved on to the potential problems of the pH could also compromise the structural integrity of the dam.  He then somehow found himself in a convoluted analogy involving bowling and Turkish prisoners in the Ottoman Empire, and Kara and Iris just looked at each other and shrugged.  Barry was a genius, maybe almost as good as Kara, but damned if the boy’s ADHD wasn’t in high gear today.

Iris walked underneath the hayloft and tugged on Barry’s dangling foot.  “Hey.  Boomhauer.  Take a breath.”

He paused, took a deep breath, and grinned at them.  “Anyway the point is, it’s important.”

Iris nodded.  “Of course it is, honey.  But so is whether Kara calls this girl.  And I think she should.  Been a little while since you had yourself a lady, hasn’t it?”

Kara nodded, sighing a wistful sigh.  She still wished things could’ve worked out with that pretty Samantha from two towns over, but Sam had been too worried that their relationship was distracting her from taking care proper of her daughter and Kara was sad about it but she couldn’t rightly object.  And well, fact was, the dating pool in these parts was a little small for a girl who liked girls.  So she’d been keeping to her own business and not thinking too much about it.

And then Lena Luthor’s car had stalled out right in her driveway.  Maybe it was a sign.

  


**

  


Eliza had made fried chicken that night.  Kara’s plate was piled high with it, along with some greens and biscuits.  It was utter bliss.  

Alex was home.  She’d been gone a few days on one of her regional trips, checking in on some of the families that her agency was keeping an eye on.  She worked with refugees and other immigrants of questionable legal status, making sure they had the resources they needed and sometimes rendering minor medical help if it was required.  It was a rewarding job, and she got to see a bit of the surrounding counties, sometimes even get into the city and the bigger towns like Macon and Savannah.  But it was mostly those folks out in the neglected rural areas; there weren’t any other agencies that did exactly what Alex did and much like rural poverty, the rural immigrant and refugee problem was largely invisible to most people.

“I had to stitch someone up today,” Alex announced as she cracked open a beer.  

Jeremiah smiled.  “Sounds like fun.”

“Minor laceration, but you know how it is.  When you’re working in a field it’s real easy to get infected.”

Eliza nodded approvingly.  “Your sister’s wheat formula seems to be working.  She’s struggling with the others, though.  Maybe you can have a crack at it later if you’re not too tired.”

“Still need big sis to come in and bail you out, huh?” Alex ribbed.

Kara snorted, snatched a biscuit out of the basket and lobbed it at Alex’s head.

Eliza smacked Kara’s shoulder.  “If you think you’re going to throw food in this house–”

“–then you better be prepared to make dinner all damn week,” Alex and Kara finished in stereo.

Alex twitched. Her phone made a pinging sound in her pocket.  She pulled it out.  

“Who is it?” Kara asked nosily.

“Iris,” Alex replied, swiping to read the message.  She mumbled under her breath for a moment.  “...and tell your sister to call that girl.”  She looked up.  “Girl?  What girl?  I go away for three days and there’s a girl?”

Kara waved dismissively.  “No, no, there’s no girl.  A girl’s car ran out of gas out front and I brought her to the filling station, that’s all.”

“Oooh, gallant.”  Alex grinned at her.  She was clearly not satisfied.  “Was she cute?”

Kara squirmed.  “Come on, Alex.”

But now Eliza and Jeremiah were interested too.  “Hmm,” Eliza mused.  “This is the first I’m hearing about this.  So?   _Was_ she cute?”

Kara’s cheeks got warm.  “Guys… really, it’s…”

“Not a big deal?”  Jeremiah wasn’t having it.  He set his beer down and folded his arms.  “If you told Iris about it, and she’s pestering Alex about it, well… it sounds to me like we’ve got a situation on our hands.”

Kara took a sip of water to delay having to answer the three inquisitive faces looking at her with a great deal of amusement.  She rubbed the back of her neck.  “Well, it’s just… she ain’t local.”

“How _not local_ is she?”  Alex demanded.

“Well, she’s got an office in Atlanta but I think she’s based in California.”

Alex whistled.  “That’s… not local,” she agreed.

Eliza pshawed.  “Now come on.  Y’all do that long-distance stuff all the time.  What’s California?  It ain’t far.  It ain’t Russia.”

Jeremiah scratched his beard.  “City girl, though.  Coastie, too.  I dunno, Eliza, I don’t know if we oughta give our blessing, here.”

“She’s awful pretty though, and smart as a whip,” Kara protested.  She wasn’t sure why she was arguing in favor of it, since she wasn’t sure herself that she wanted to chase Lena Luthor.  “And what do you mean, Eliza, 'y’all do that long-distance stuff'?  Y’all who?”

“Lesbians,” Alex snickered.  “Lesbians like long distance relationships.”

“Shut up, numbnut,” Kara snapped.

“California… could be worse,” Eliza repeated.  “Could be China.”

Kara peered at her like she was insane.  “Come on, now.  It’s all the same if it ain’t in Clarke County.”

The teasing continued apace until Kara finished her giant pile of food and cleared the table to do the dishes.

  


**

  


Kara sat on the porch swing later that night.  Alex was drinking a beer.  They were staring out at the stars that winked over the nodding rows of soybeans that blanketed the low hill behind the house.  Patsy Cline drifted out from Jeremiah’s tool shop in the basement where he was banging around with who knew what.

“I’m tired of you being lonely,” Alex said after a long quiet.

“Well, I’m tired of you being lonely,” Kara answered.  “We kind of knew what we were getting when we decided to stay here instead of move off to a city.”

“Well, yeah, but... you’ve got an opportunity, seems like.  I think you’re crazy if you don’t take it.”

Kara sighed.  “I don’t know, Alex.”

“Yeah you do.  You’re just scared.  You’re so big and strong and you’re so unafraid to give and put yourself out for total strangers, but when it comes to going for the girl, you’re a big old scaredy cat.”

Kara smiled.  She still had Lena Luthor’s card just about burning a hole in the back pocket of her jeans.

Alex got up.  “I’m gonna leave you to it.  Call her.  Or I’m gonna kick your ass.”

“Try it,” Kara shot back.

“If anyone could, I could.”

Alex wasn’t wrong about that.

She took out the card, took out her phone, and dialed the number.  “Hi, uh… Lena?  It’s uh, Kara Danvers.  We met a few days ago when your car broke down on my farm?  How are you?”

Alex punched her in the shoulder and went inside.  Kara stayed out on the porch swing, talking to Lena for the next hour and a half.


	3. Chapter 3

“She’s really flying out here!”  Lena exclaimed over her salad.  “I guess I thought we’d have one of those piney long-distance things for a while until I had a reason to go to Atlanta again.”  They’d spoken on the phone several times over the last week and change, and had very long calls each time, only hanging up the phone when they had absolutely no choice.  The conversations ranged from botany to genetics to corn dogs and their favorite vacations (Kara’s was Cape San Blas, Florida, which was about a six hour drive for her but whose beaches were dog friendly, so she could bring the family’s sassy little beagle, Krypto.  Lena’s was the Riviera but she decided to go with surfing the half pipes in Malibu since she really did like that and she figured it sounded less fancy.) 

“She doesn’t waste time,” Cat responded. “I like it.  So, got a picture?”

Kara had been the topic of conversation since the day Lena had gotten back from Atlanta last week.  She suspected Cat was getting tired of hearing her go on about it.  

Lena whipped out her phone and pulled up Kara’s facebook page.  She pulled up a cute closeup of Kara and her best friend Barry eating ice cream together at a county fair.  She was wearing her trucker’s cap that read “MAKE AMERICA AMERICA AGAIN” and you could see a few studs in each of her ears.  Cat smirked.  “Cute.”

Lena swiped through a few more and showed Cat the one where she wore thick-rimmed glasses.  Science Kara, she called it.  Her cropped blonde hair was flopping in a shaggy little wave to one side.  “Blonde Rachel Maddow,” Cat commented.  “Love it.”

“OK but…”  Lena swiped through a few more photos until she stopped on a full body shot that someone had taken of Kara, possibly Barry or his girlfriend.  She was in faded blue jeans worn out at the knees, cowboy boots, a white ribbed tank top, dark sunglasses and a cowboy hat.  You could see how broad her shoulders were and how defined her biceps were.  The whole package was so sexy it almost hurt to look at it.

Cat’s mouth dropped open for a half a second.  “Be still my little gay heart,” she whispered.  “How tall did you say she is?”

“Five nine, five ten maybe?”

Cat pursed her lips.  “Luthor, I’m going to say this once and only once.  You’d better ride that big, sunny hunk of farm girl like a tractor, or I’m going to.”

Lena laughed.  “Oh, no you don’t, Grant.  This one is mine.”

  
  


**   
  


Kara had declined Lena’s offer to pick her up at the airport or even to send a car for her.  “I can get to you under my own steam, but thanks,” she’d said.

Kara arrived at her doorstep with a knapsack on her back and a large basket of peaches.  “Hope you like peaches,” she said cheerfully as Lena moved aside to let her out of the elevator.

It was the biggest basket of peaches she had ever seen. “Are you joking?”

“Nope.”

“Those aren’t real Georgia peaches.”

“Course they are,” Kara replied, eyes sparkling.  “Grew ‘em myself.”

“But how did you get that big basket on the plane?”

Kara just gave her a sly smile.  “Turns out you can get away with a lot of you have a cute smile and you give people a sweet, juicy peach.”

Lena bit her lip.  “Just what are you looking to get away with this weekend, Miss Danvers?”

“I’ll leave that up to you.”  

Lena pointed her to the kitchen and Kara set the peaches down on the counter.  Lena had no idea what she was going to do with so many peaches.  She could hear Cat’s voice in her head, remarking that she had a lot of bellinis in her future.  

  
  


**

  
  


Kara, not wanting to presume, had gotten herself a cheap hotel room.  Lena remarked that the neighborhood was a little dicey, but Kara didn’t seem concerned.  “They don’t want any of this action.”  She put up her dukes for a second and pantomimed punching the air.

Lena could hardly stand it.

She had one goal for the weekend; to get to know Kara better, show her a good time, and try, in the name of all that was holy, not to seem so ridiculously citified as to earn herself that Southern-Parent-Politely-Disapproving face from the Professors Danvers.  So she had Kara come meet her at the humbler of her places (not saying much, as it still had a private elevator and ocean views but at least it was somewhat modest in size, unlike her sprawling penthouse uptown, overlooking the Crystal Room).  And she did her best to think up things for them to do that would be casual and fun and didn’t involve them getting chauffeured around in one of her town cars.  

So she took Kara to a steakhouse for dinner that night, and watched in amazement as the girl packed away a prime rib with various sides and biscuits and salad and several beers that somehow didn’t seem to get her that drunk.  She supposed if you spent all day doing the kind of physical labor that Kara did, you’d probably have that kind of appetite.  Lena felt absurd nibbling on her restrained little filet mignon and wantonly ordered them some lobster tails and another pitcher of beer.  

“This is great,” Kara declared, washing down a lobster tail with some more of the lager.  “So what do y’all do for fun at night?  You like to go dancing?”

Lena nodded.  “I’ve been known to.  I don’t know if we’ve got any clubs around here that play the kind of music you like, though.”

Kara snorted.  “C’mon now.  Just because I love my country music, doesn’t mean I don’t like other stuff.  I mean, you don’t just like club music, do you?”

Lena almost spit out her beer.  “Club music?”

Kara winked at her.  Lena was tipsier than she meant to be and that little wink filled her with an sudden and powerful urge to climb Kara Danvers like a tree.  “Yeah, club music.  Isn’t that what y’all like to dance to?” 

Lena laughed.  “I hate it, to be honest with you.  I’d really rather just go see a good band.”

“Well, why don’t we do that?  I hear Nat City has some pretty famous rock and roll clubs.”  Kara was enthusiastic and of remarkably good cheer, and Lena supposed that she ought to be for how much beer they’d drunk, but it didn’t seem like drunk cheer.  It just seemed like a perpetual good mood.  

Lena of course had the ability to pick up her phone and call in a favor, or simply blow a couple thousand dollars on seeing Arcade Fire or whoever was at the Nat City Coliseum that night, but she was really trying to seem like a regular girl.  So she took out her phone and started swiping through a list of grungy clubs, looking for a semi-notorious rock band she could take them to see.  Her eye caught on a listing for a place called “The Cowgirl Hall of Fame.”  “Hey,” she said, a little too loudly, “we do have a country music club in town, I didn’t even realize.”  

Kara leaned over her shoulder and peered at her phone as she opened the website.  The place had a lot of country memorabilia on the walls, apparently, and boasted the regular appearance of a Patsy Cline cover band called the Weepin’ Willows.  Kara shook her head.  “Nah.  If I wanted to go to a country music bar, I’d stay home.  If you want that, next time you come visit, I’ll take you to a real deal place; sawdust on the floor, gin fizzes so strong they’ll take the paint off your nails, and a band with a blind lap steel player that looks like he’s a hundred years old.”

Lena blushed a little.

Kara suddenly grabbed her chair and scraped it across the wood floor next to Lena’s, sat down backwards in it, and seized Lena’s hand.  “Listen, stop trying to convince me you’re a regular girl.  Regular girls don’t live in Market District and have an Anova Culinary Precision Cooker in their kitchens.”

Lena was horrified.

“Yeah, I noticed it.  Saw that Behmor Brewer Connected Coffee Maker, too.”

Lena deflated in her chair.  “I just didn’t want to come off too fancy, or overwhelm you, or–”

Kara looked fondly at her, her calloused thumb rubbing idly across the back of Lena’s hand as she spoke.  A little shiver ran up Lena’s arm.  She pointed to her ears, where Lena noticed for the first time that she was wearing little earplugs made of some sort of clear polymer.  “Darlin’, the only thing that overwhelms me is the sounds of the city.  That’s why I got these.”

Lena looked at them curiously.  “Sensory issues?” she guessed.

Kara nodded.  “Yep.  That’s one of the reasons I like living where I live.  It’s quieter.  But you?  Being rich and pretty?  Hell no, I’m not overwhelmed by it.  Do you think I don’t know who you are?  You’re Lena Luthor, so for goodness sake, show me a Lena Luthor good time!”

Lena laughed, relief flooding through her.  She squeezed Kara’s hand once, and then sighed, “I could kiss you right now.”

Kara’s eyes danced, and she looked like she was seriously considering it.  “Nah,” she said after a moment, wrinkling her nose in a way that Lena found maddeningly adorable.  “Not here.”

“No?”

Kara leaned forward then, and Lena swooned a little as Kara’s soft cheek brushed against hers, and she felt her warm breath on her ear as she murmured, “We only get one first kiss.”

  
  


***

 

So Lena called her driver, Frederick, and he came around with the town car and took them to Rubyfruit, Lena’s favorite swanky lesbian club, for drinks.  Since Kara was a little underdressed for that, they stopped at a boutique in Escala District and grabbed her an outfit that was a little notch up from what she was wearing: some soft brown leather pants, a white collared shirt and a smart little tweed vest.  They drank expensive champagne and did a little close dancing to a pretty hot jazz band.  Kara was more than comfortable leading and Lena was having trouble wondering if she was that comfortable everywhere else.  Her fingers were trailing over the buzzed part of Kara’s hair, and it was so unbelievably soft, and Kara’s arms were so unbelievably strong, and any notions she’d had about behaving herself this weekend went skipping out the door past the big butch bouncer and rolled away into the night.

“So, I have this best friend,” she began, leaning into Kara’s chest.  Kara’s hands tightened a little around her waist.

“Cat, right?”

“Mm.  Yeah.  You’ll like her, if you get to meet.  Maybe.”  Lena laughed.  “She’s kind of an asshole honestly, but she’s a the fun kind of asshole, if you follow me, and actually, she gives great advice, and she’s a damn good friend to have when you’re in a tight spot.”

She felt Kara chuckle at little.  “Yeah, I have a few friends like that.”  

“Loyal as fuck.”  Lena couldn’t help it.  She was always a little more expressive –and foulmouthed– after a few drinks.

Kara pulled her tighter.  Lena sighed.  “So what about your loyal as fuck best friend, Cat?”

“I showed her your picture at lunch the other day.”

“Did you?”

The band swung into a particularly blue version of “Come Rain or Come Shine,” and Kara shifted her grip.  One arm stayed comfortably around Lena’s waist, while the other slipped free, and a hand settled on Lena’s shoulder.

“I did.”

“And what did she have to say about it?”

Lena started laughing.  “She said I should ride you like a tractor.”

Kara threw her head back and hooted.  “Did she now?”

Lena nodded.  “Uh-huh.”

Kara’s hand slid up the side of Lena’s neck and settled on her jaw, and gently nudged Lena’s head back.  “And do you always take her advice?” she asked, gazing into Lena’s eyes with a little curlicue smile playing around her mouth.

Lena’s heart was hammering in her chest.  God, she smelled good.  And felt good.  And looked good.  “Most of the time,” she said softly.

Kara leaned down and kissed her, gently, still swaying a little under the colored lights.  Her lips were soft, and the kiss was slow and sweet and unhurried.  She pulled back for a moment, and they both caught their breath.  “I think you should take your friend’s advice,” she said, her voice low and husky.  They kissed again, and this time Kara’s tongue found its way into her mouth.

Lena’s head was spinning a little.  “Fuck,” was all she could manage.

“Wanna go?”

“Fuck yes,” Lena murmured.  She called Frederick.  He brought the car around.  They rode up to the penthouse, making out in the back of the town car the whole way there.  


	4. Chapter 4

They stopped kissing long enough to tumble out of the private elevator and into the penthouse.

Kara glanced around at the sprawling open space.  She had enough time to notice the twinkling of the stars and the city lights from all four directions before Lena Luthor was pressing her up against a wall next to the elevator, looking for more of those deep, slow kisses.  She had one hand tangled in the blond thatch of Kara’s hair, and the other hanging onto her belt.

This was pretty much exactly what she’d wanted from the second she laid eyes on Lena in those impractical shoes and that pretty dress that clung in all the right places.

Kara’s hand untucked Lena’s green silk blouse from her dress pants and slipped up underneath it, dragging up the smooth skin of her back.  Lena made a little groaning sound and Kara’s pulse picked up because she was looking forward to hearing more of those kinds of sounds.  It was hard not to get carried away.  She took a fistful green silk, and in her mind, she was just tugging it a little to indicate to Lena that she intended to slip it up over her head.  She heard a ripping sound.  They paused for a breath, and looked down to find that Kara had torn the damn thing off entirely.  Just, ripped it in half.  It dangled from her hand.  She turned two shades redder.  “Oh, gosh, I’m real sorry, I didn’t mean to rip that pretty–”

“Jesus Christ,” Lena breathed, realizing that Kara had literally ripped her top right off of her.  And she pressed herself even hard into her, covering Kara’s mouth with hers.  “I wish you could do that again.”  She reached down and started unbuckling Kara’s belt.  

Kara laughed, or tried to, or would have if Lena’s tongue hadn’t been in her mouth.  Lena got her belt undone and those soft leather pants were sliding down onto the floor.

“Rip my pants off too,” Lena whispered.

“What?”

“Come on.”

Kara chuckled, and then gripped the waistband of Lena’s trousers and ripped them off her.  Lena muttered some curses.

Lena’s hands started moving urgently.  “I’m not strong like you,” she purred, sliding her hands underneath Kara’s button-down shirt and moving up to palm her breasts, squeezing them through her sports bra, “so you’re just going to have to cooperate with me taking this top off of you.”

Kara held her arms up helpfully, and then the shirt was gone, probably tangled in one of the ceiling fans for all she knew.  

Kara reached around Lena’s waist and got her hands full of the soft curves of her ass in those skimpy lace boyshorts, and Lena moaned shamelessly when Kara gave her a little squeeze.  Their hips started grinding against each other, involuntarily; they were just hot and wanted to feel each other and Kara felt great about that.  She pulled back, nipped at Lena’s nose and grinning like an idiot, she said, “Vroom vroom.”

Lena laughed.  She rocked up on her toes and kissed her once.  “You’re so fucking cute.”  She pulled back and started to walk across the thick carpet, away from her, toward the end of a hall.  As she walked, she unhooked her bra and tossed it on the floor.  “You coming or not?”  she inquired over her shoulder.

Kara was frozen for just half a second at the sight of that nearly naked silhouette walking away.  Lena turned around, and Kara gulped a little when faced with the sight of maybe the most perfect breasts she’d ever seen.  

“Come on, country mouse.  You can’t get me all worked up like that and then keep me waiting.”

Kara forgot that her pants were still around her ankles.  She’d never bothered to kick out of them.  She moved to follow Lena and promptly bottomed out on the floor.  She cussed, kicked out of her pants, and bounced back up onto her feet, as Lena stood, nearly naked, gorgeous, and laughing her ass off.  Well, only one way to handle such an indignity, Kara decided gamely.  She marched over to Lena, gripped the backs of her legs, and picked her up off the floor.  Lena wrapped her legs around Kara’s waist and Kara carried her down the hall.

“See how you like that,” she muttered in Lena’s ear.

“I like it a lot,” Lena sighed back.  “All those bales of hay you throw around have given you some…” She paused, squeezing one of Kara’s shoulders.  “...some really nice, strong shoulders.”

Kara marched toward the end of the hall.  “I could carry you around all night like this.  You’re light as a feather.  I could bear you around on my shoulders like the queen you are.”  She paused, realizing she didn’t know which of the three doors she was heading for.  “Which one?”

Lena pointed, and Kara entered the door to the left.  “I _am_ a queen,” Lena answered.  

“And I got a pretty good idea how I can serve you,” Kara whispered.  The little they were both wearing was already feeling like too much.  She set Lena down gently on the edge of the bed, knelt down in front of her, and tugged her underwear down her legs and then off.  Lena’s fingers were raking through her short hair as she leaned forward and kissed the insides of her thighs, very deliberate and slow.  Lena trembled a little bit and moaned.  Kara looked up at her, skin pale in the moonlight, cheeks flushed even in the half dark.  “Goddamn you’re beautiful,” she sighed.  And then she pushed Lena down flat onto her back, and staying right where she was on the floor, she spread Lena open and began softly licking her.

Lena was a loud one.  She was a moaner, and even better, a talker.  And Lord, but she tasted like honey and lilacs and whiskey and everything beautiful.  She was pulling at Kara’s hair, but it didn’t even hurt.  All Kara cared about was getting her to make more of those sounds.

She paused, feeling her tension build. “You gettin’ close, baby?”

“Yeah,” Lena panted.  

Kara got up.

“Don’t stop,” Lena whined.

Kara smiled, picked her up again, and moved her up the bed.  Then she carefully settled herself on top of her, wrapped herself around her, and flipped them over in the enormous bed, so that Lena was on top.  

“Sit up a second?”

Lena pushed herself up, tucking her knees and straddling Kara.  Kara took hold of her hips and guided her up a little, then she reached down, and slipped two fingers into her.  Lena gasped, a sweet little sound that made Kara wetter than she already was.  “Fuck,” she moaned.

“That’s the idea, darlin’.”  She shifted her other hand, and pressed a thumb against Lena’s swollen clit.  “I believe you were advised to ride me like a tractor?” she suggested with a gentle smirk.

“Well, I can’t ignore good advice.”  

Kara was lost in Lena, in the rhythm of her hips as she rose up and down on  Kara’s strong fingers, the wonderful, dirty things she was whispering, and the sighs she would sigh when it got so she couldn’t make words anymore.  She got lost in the heat of being inside her, the way her wetness was flooding her fingers, the way she’d occasionally lean forward and grip Kara’s shoulders and moan, “Oh, fuck.”  She thrust her fingers against the hungry movement of Lena’s hips, wanting her, wanting her to spill over into orgasm and then when she did…

She was loud.  She was shaking.  She was dripping wet.  She was hot and beautiful and volcanic and her mouth tasted like champagne and sex and Kara just lay there, quivering along with her.  Even when Lena had ridden out the wave of her orgasm, Kara still lay there trembling.

Lena slid down off of her and curled up next to her.  She looked at her, her big blue-green eyes glistening and full of concern.  “You alright?  You’re still shaking.”

Kara nodded.  How could she explain?  “It’s...yeah… Just … my hearing isn’t the only sense that’s sensitive sometimes … I’m a little…”  She wished she could form the words better, but it was hard at the moment.

Lena stroked her hair, and Kara flinched a little.  “What can I do for you?” she asked, her voice quiet and gentle.

Kara pointed to one of the king size pillows.

“You want a pillow?”

Kara nodded.

“Under your head?”

Kara shook her head.  “No… put it, like … on top of me.  And then… just … lay on me.”

Lena processed the request for a moment and then laid the pillow on Kara’s chest.  Then, very carefully, she climbed on top of her and laid down.  “Deep pressure, right?”

Kara nodded.  

“My brother has sensory issues,” Lena explained.  “He has Asperger’s.  We had to do stuff like this sometimes.”

They laid like that for a while, until Kara stopped shivering and reached up and stroked Lena’s hair.  “Thanks,” she sighed.  “I just got a little overloaded there.”

Lena smiled and kissed her mouth.  “It happens.”

“Especially when I’m real excited.”

“You did seem excited.”

Kara smiled tiredly.

“You feeling ok enough to let me do things for you?  Or do you just want to…”

Kara kissed her.  “We got all weekend,” she said.  “Let’s just stay like this for right now.”

Lena drew the blankets up over them, and holding Kara as tight as she could, they fell asleep.

  


**

 

Kara woke up to the warmth of the sun, the weight of Lena Luthor’s head on her chest, and the lingering smell of sex.  Nope, she thought with a little smile, not a dream.  

She and Barry had a joint panic attack before she’d left.  “BARRY SHE’S A GIRL AND SHE’S HOT AND RICH AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO.”  

“I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO TELL YOU KARA, MY WIFE CHOSE ME.  I DON’T KNOW HOW TO GIRL.”

(Alex, possibly the regional title holder for Biggest Disaster Lesbian, was not even consulted.)  Iris dismissed Barry and gave Kara some very good, very simple advice.  “Be your sweet, sunny self.  Be confident in how awesome and sexy you are.  And ...this is important… do not let your first kiss suck.  Even if she seems like she wants to kiss you, wait for the right moment.  You only get one first kiss.  Make it count.”

 _God bless Iris,_ Kara thought.  Kara lifted her head awkwardly and kissed Lena’s forehead.

Lena stirred.  “Mmm,” she mumbled, “morning.”

“Morning, darlin’.”

“I like that,” she murmured, her eyes still closed.

“Like what?”

“When you call me that.”

Kara wrapped her arms around Lena and held her tightly for a moment.  

“I’m gonna start the coffee,” Lena sighed.

“Don’t get outta bed yet,” Kara protested.

Lena lifted her head and gave Kara a mischievous look.  Her hair was morning messy but if anything, she only looked sexier than she did last night.  “I’m not.”  She rolled over and felt around on the bedside table till she found her phone.  She opened an app and said, “Behmor, make coffee, please.”

“Brewing coffee,” the app responded in a calm female voice.

Kara whooped.  “Fancy!”

Lena grinned a dazzling grin.  “Uh-huh.”

After a few minutes of lazy kissing and rolling around, they got up, located their underwear, put it on, and walked out into the living room.  The smell of coffee filled the place.  Kara was peering in Lena’s refrigerator, trying to figure out what to make for breakfast.  About half the ingredients in there were suspect, because she hadn’t heard of them, but she saw what looked like eggs, and some fresh herbs, and … “Rice milk?”  

“Yeah.”

Kara closed the fridge.  “Good thing I take my coffee black.”  She pulled one of the peaches from the big basket on the counter.  “Now, before you have anything else this morning, you need to get a taste of these and if they are not the best you ever had in your life, well… well, I don’t know what.  I’ll think of something.  But I won’t have to. Because they’re the best.”

She found a clean knife and cut a couple of slices.  She held one up to Lena’s lips.  She opened her mouth, and Kara popped it in.  She was deeply satisfied when Lena closed her eyes and, after a few moments, declared that it was indeed the best peach she’d ever had.  “It’s so sweet and juicy… it literally melts in my mouth.”

Kara smiled and took another slice.  She slipped it into Lena’s mouth, and Lena caught her finger between her teeth for a moment, too.  She offered Lena the cutting board then, and they stood together, feeding each other little slices of soft, sweet, drippy, sticky peach.  Kara was immensely enjoying watching Lena lick her fingers clean, when they both jumped as they heard a voice say, “Jesus Christ on a rainbow!”

They turned, alarmed, to find a rather petite, painfully fashionable blonde looking at them appraisingly.  Lena turned six shades of red.  She realized her sticky finger was still in her mouth and for some reason, the first thing she thought of to say was, “It’s just peach juice!”

Kara chuckled a little.  The blonde sashayed over, and deposited a brown paper bag on the counter along with a plastic bag that appeared to contain a carton of orange juice and a bottle of champagne.

“Here I am bringing you mimosas and cruffins to find out how your date went.”  She tsked and glanced at Kara.  “Apparently, it went well.”  

Lena was blushing furiously.  “Um, so… this is Kara…”

Cat sighed.  “Luthor, please, hide your shame.  Go put on a robe or something.”  She turned to Kara.  “Much as it pains me to say it, you should probably hide your shame too, though…”  She paused for a long, appreciative glance.  “...there’s no rush.”

Kara laughed as Lena stomped off to her room to find a dressing gown to throw on.  “So, you must be Cat.  I’ve heard all about you.  You don’t seem like nearly as much of an asshole as she says.”

Cat smirked.  She called out to Lena.  “I like this one.  She can stay!”

Kara didn’t have a robe to speak of and with her shoulders, it wasn’t likely she could borrow anything of Lena’s, so she sat down on one of the stools by the kitchen island and started chatting up Cat.  “What the heck is a cruffin?”

Cat sighed.  “They’re ridiculous.  I resent that I’ve been made to crave them.  Do you know what cronuts are?”

Kara shrugged.  “Sorta.”

“Well these are their cousins.  They’re croissant muffins.  Cruffins.  This is my world.  Mere mortals have to wait in line to get these for about an hour.”  She reached into the paper bag and handed one to Kara.  “Try not to erotically feed it to her when she gets back.”

Kara was glancing around, looking for the button down shirt that Lena had taken off of her last night.  It was, indeed, hanging from a ceiling fan in the living room.  “‘Scuse me for a moment,” she said, reflexively polite, and walked over to retrieve it.  As she was slipping it on over her head, she heard Cat exclaim, “Lena?  Is that your Brooks Brothers blouse on the floor?  Torn in half?”

There was an awkward silence as Lena came back out, wearing a dressing gown with some chinese patterns on it.  “Um, it … is?”

Cat whistled.  “More like, it was.”  She shook her head.  

“What are you doing here?”  Lena finally asked.

“Well, it’s Saturday morning and I didn’t think you’d have an overnight guest because … you know… and you told me she’d gotten a hotel room and you didn’t text me to say she was _staying over_ , so I just figured I’d do our usual.”  She held up a delicately manicured finger, which had a set of keys dangling from it.  “You forgot I have keys.”

Lena shook her head and got out cups for coffee.  While she was pouring, Cat leaned in conspiratorially to Kara.  “She doesn’t do this, you know.  Take a girl home on the first date.  You must be very, very special.”  She paused, took another look at Kara, who was now sitting on a stool with her bare legs sticking out from under a half-undone white button down shirt, and sighed.  “Or just very, very attractive.”

“Jesus Cat, I’m right here.  I can hear you.”

“Can’t it be both?” Kara joked.

Cat gave a slow clap.  “Indeed it can.”  She looked between them for a moment.  “Well, I suppose I’d better leave you two alone… you have a lot of agriculture to discuss or whatever…”

“Nah, stay,” Kara said.  

Then Cat’s eyes lit on the big basket of peaches.  “Christ, that’s a lot of peaches.  Just how many peaches do you think she can eat, Kara?”

“I think she can eat as many as she wants.”

“Lena, do you have prosecco?  Screw the mimosas, we’re having bellinis.”


	5. Chapter 5

Lena sat next to Kara in the tractor’s deep bucket seat, looking in amazement at the console she’d installed on what, for lack of a better term, she thought of as the dash.  It looked like a pretty sophisticated nav system.

“No wonder Deere has it in for you!” she hollered over the tractor’s rumble.  “I thought you were just doing repairs, not full-blown mods!”

Kara leaned back in the seat and swung her arm around Lena’s shoulders, driving the enormous machine with only the one hand.  The late afternoon sun sweltered just a little but Lena was lightly dressed in cutoffs and a tank, so the breezes were kind to her skin.  The light was molten gold and touched the cornfields with a sure hand.

“How else am I supposed to do this type of pattern?”  

Kara was steering the tractor in intricate circles.  Lena had no idea what she was up to and couldn’t guess.  “Come on, just tell me,” she finally pleaded.

“Corn maze,” Kara answered, looking pleased with herself.

“Corn maze,” Lena repeated.  “You built and installed a GPS nav system into your tractor, which voids the warranty, I might add… so you could make a corn maze.”

Kara was grinning now.  Her fingertips brushed lightly over Lena’s bicep.  “Uh-huh.  Can you think of a better reason?”

Lena shook her head.  A month ago, she’d never have guessed she’d be riding in the passenger seat of a large tractor, making doe eyes at the girl driving it.

Apart from Cat’s appearance to mortify her, the rest of their Nat City weekend had been everything Lena had hoped it would be.  They spent a lot of it naked, truth be told, and Lena discovered that when Kara was relaxed, her hypersensitivity was a lot of fun to play with in bed.  Kara enjoyed the hot tub, and discovered that she loved brunch (watching her put away the smoked salmon benedict with home fries and salad and toast and mimosas and coffee was a vicarious thrill), and hibachi.  Their goodbye was sweet and a little sad but Kara’s last words as she walked out the door had been, “I’ll call you.”

And she did.  They talked as often as they could manage.  Lena was a bit surprised to find that Kara was often just as hamstrung for time as she was, because of all the work to be done on the farm, or she couldn’t talk because she was working the stall at the farmer’s market.  But they managed a few more long phone calls over the intervening two weeks, a couple of them pretty racy, one of which ended in a hurry when Kara’s sister Alex barged into her room without knocking.

“You’re in love,” her friend Sara declared flatly.  

“I am not, we just had a really nice weekend together.”  But Lena knew she was falling faster than she intended.  She was endlessly grateful for Kara’s Instagram account, with its shots of Kara flexing like a doofus in front of the mirror (god, those muscles), hugging sheep, and horsing around with Barry and Iris and some of her other cute country friends.

She found an excuse to go to L-Corp’s Atlanta office two weeks after.  She didn’t need one, she could go whenever she wanted, but, she wanted to have an excuse because, as she said to Cat, “I don’t want to look too thirsty.”

Cat snorted.  “Too late for that, darling.”

So she’d flown in to ATL, rented a car and followed Kara home from the market on a Friday, with the windows open and the radio playing Granger Smith’s “If the Boot Fits” as they tore out of the city and headed into the landscape of fields and sky.  She’d chosen a little dark blue dress with tiny white polka dots on it, that rode just a little high above the knee, and some ballet flats, and when Kara looked up and saw her, her whole being had lit up.  Like she’d just seen water in the desert.  

So here she was.  Apparently a passenger on the world’s most sophisticated tractor, which was being used to make a corn maze.  “Why?”

“Aw, some of the local kids like to come and run around.”  

Kara cut the wheel again, and brought them back around to where they’d started.  She slid easily out her side, then came around to help Lena down from hers.  Lena could easily have climbed down on her own, but it wasn’t as if she was about to pass on getting picked up by Kara.  

Alex came strolling up.  She was in casual dark clothes and had a backpack slung over her shoulder.  “You makin’ your crop circles again?” she demanded jovially.

“Always,” Kara answered with a grin.  “You never know, right?”

Alex snorted and mimed a few punches at Kara’s head.  Kara dipped out of the way and mimed a few punches back.  Then they hugged.  Lena wondered briefly what it would have been like to have that kind of easy jocularity with Lex.  Alex turned and inspected her.  “Well, well.  Lena Luthor in the flesh.”  She extended a hand, and Lena took it and shook it firmly.  “My sister’s awfully stuck on you, I don’t mind telling you.”

“Shut up, Alex.”  Was Kara blushing?  Kara, who had no problem holding court with Cat Grant wearing nothing but her underwear and a button down shirt?

“Do tell,” Lena pursued.

Alex looked like she’d swallowed a canary.  “Aw, she doesn’t stop talking about you, that’s all.  I’m glad you’re here, or else I was gonna have to stuff a sock in her mouth.”

Kara shoved Alex lightly in the shoulder.  Alex stumbled back a little.  “Try it, Alex.  I’ll put you over my shoulder, truss you up, and sell you up at the market.”

“I’m worth more than everything you got in that truck.”

Their affectionate bickering continued as they made their way up toward the house, Lena strolling alongside them and simply enjoying their back and forth.  She pictured them both much smaller and tumbling over each other in the dirt fighting over a toy.  

  


**

 

The Danvers’ home was warm, and smelled of good things cooking, and it was cozy as anything she’d ever seen on the pages of Country Homes.  Dinner was barbecue, with Jeremiah manning the grill and turning out some of the most delicious pork chops Lena had ever tasted.  Jeremiah and Eliza repeatedly addressed her as City Mouse, but it was done in a friendly way.  Eliza at one point inquired as to whether Lena wanted kids.

“Holy hell, Mom!” Alex hooted.  

“I’m just asking,” Eliza protested, indignant.  “I mean in general, that’s all.”

Kara buried her face in her hands for a minute, but Lena was more amused than anything else.

After dinner, they sat on the porch swing, holding hands and watching the sun go down.  Kara stole a little kiss.  “So, you wondering what we do for fun out here?”

“Well, you know.  That tractor ride was pretty fun.”

Kara chuckled and nipped at her ear.  “I was thinking I’d show you some rural nightlife.”

Lena wondered what that could possibly mean, but she was game for anything.  

The place Kara took her was a far cry from the sanitized place in National City whose website she had briefly perused.  It was as Kara had promised; a real redneck bar.  They pulled up and Lena saw tons of young cowboys outside smoking cigarettes, neon beer signs in the window, and as they passed inside, she heard the strains of Johnny Cash coming from a pretty tight country band on stage.  Kara hadn’t been kidding about the blind lap steel guy either.  He did look like he was a hundred years old.  The place was small, and pretty full.  Her feet sank into a soft layer of sawdust on the floor.  She wondered what it was there for.  It probably helped the acoustics but she guessed that probably wasn’t it.

“Hey, Kara!” an old man called out from near the jukebox.  

Kara waved.  “Hey, Walt!”

Lena’s eyes lit on the bartender, a grizzled older man in a trucker cap.  He was was staring humorlessly in their direction.  She wondered whether Kara ever had a hard time being so obviously gay in a place like this.  She lifted her gaze and looked back at him, daring him to say something.  As she watched, another grizzled older man in a trucker cap came up behind him, wrapped his arms around the guy’s waist and kissed him on the cheek.  

He started, then turned around, his face breaking into a smile.  “Clem, you son of a bitch, don’t you sneak up on me like that!”  And then they exchanged another brief kiss.

Lena shook her head.  Kara had grabbed her hand and was leading her out to the dance floor.  Lena took half a moment to look around and actually absorb that most of the cowboys in here were dancing with each other, and most of the cowgirls were more interested in her and Kara than they were in the cowboys.  “How do they get away with having a place like this out here?” she hollered over the band.

“Get away with?”  Kara laughed, and spun her around.  “The gay nights are the hoppingest nights this bar has!  Some people come all the way from Dawson County on nights when ol’ Fred up there plays.  And wait’ll Velma gets up, she sounds just like Bonnie Raitt.”

Kara taught Lena how to line dance.  After a few beers, and several attempts, she finally got it and it was actually ridiculously fun.  Then again, she suspected, Kara could probably make anything ridiculously fun.  She had that kind of energy.  Half the people in the place knew her and made sure to sing her praises to Lena so frequently and so fervently:   _“This girl’s a damn genius!  You sure are lucky, hon.”  “This girl saved my dog!  She’s a real hero!  You best hang on to this one!”  “Kara here fixed my tractor and saved me some two grand.”  “Kara officiated my wedding when the preacher didn’t turn up.  You’ll marry her if you’ve got a lick of sense in you.”_  Lena asked jokingly, “Did you pay these people?”

And when the band played a sweet Tammy Wynette ballad to end the night, and Kara took her in her arms, and they swayed together in the dim, she was overcome with a wave of contentment.  She knew this was just supposed to be a weekend getaway, an oasis in the country to give her a break from her real life and real world, but damned if she didn’t feel like she could stay here forever in Kara’s arms listening to an eighty year old Southern woman singing Tammy Wynette.  

 _“Right now I'm like a wounded bird hungry for the sky_  
 _But if I try my wings and try long enough_  
_I'm bound to learn to fly_  
_So I'll just keep on fallin' in love til I get it right…”_

“This is my favorite song that she does,” Kara sighed happily against Lena’s temple.  “It’s so goddamn pretty.”

“You’re goddamn pretty,” Lena sighed back.

“Stop,” Kara said, and squeezed her.  “I ain’t that.”

“You are to me.”  Lena pressed herself tighter to Kara’s chest.

 _“..My door to love has opened out more times than in_   
_And I'm either fool or wise enough to open it again_   
_Cause I'll never know what's beyond the mountain til I reach_ _  
_ _The other side…”_

“I like you,” Kara said after a moment in which they didn’t speak, they just swayed together, feeling the music and each other.

“I like you too.  I hope you don’t think that I–”

“Shh.  This is my favorite part.”  


_“...So I'll just keep on fallin' in love til I get it right_   
_If practice makes perfect then I'm near bout as perfect as I'll ever_   
_Be in my life_ _  
_ _So I'll just keep on fallin' in love til I get it right…”_


	6. Chapter 6

Lena glanced around as Kara rolled the truck to a stop out in the middle of a field.  “Where are we?” 

“The middle of nowhere,” Kara said happily.  “A corner of the farm where nobody’s gonna bother us.”  She opened the door and slid out, fiddled with the blankets in the flatbed in the back, then appeared by Lena’s door, opened it, and squired her down to the ground.  She nodded in the direction of the flatbed. “C’mon.”

She guided Lena through the tall grass and then lifted her up into the flatbed where she’d spread several thick blankets.  She jumped up after her. Lena was settling in, kicking off her shoes and glancing around. Kara crawled up next to her, placed a finger on her chin, and tipped her head back.  “Look up,” she whispered.

Lena obliged, and paused for a moment, and gave a little gasp.  “Look at all that,” she whispered.

Kara had missed the stars when she was in National City.  She knew Lena would appreciate how full the sky was out here where they didn’t have to compete with so much light.  Kara laid down on her back and stretched her long frame out on the blankets, clasping her hands behind her head. After a moment of staring up, Lena followed suit.  Kara reached down and took her hand. “It’s not so bad out here, is it.”

Lena sighed.  Kara could tell she was still a little tipsy.  “No, it sure isn’t.” Lena turned her head and Kara could feel her gaze.  “But it’s good wherever you are.”

Kara turned her head and looked at Lena.  She was the prettiest girl she’d ever seen, let alone been with.  “Now if you go talking like that,” Kara began, but Lena suddenly kissed her, and Kara instantly forgot what little quip was on the tip of her tongue because it was in Lena’s mouth.

They kissed for a few minutes under the stars, listening to the crickets and feeling the evening cool.  Kara turned over and settled herself on top of Lena, and traced her fingers over Lena’s jaw before falling into another kiss.  Lena’s hands slid up the back of her shirt. She shuddered with more pleasure than she should have at that little touch, those light fingers on her back.  She felt Lena laughing underneath her. “I love that,” Lena purred. “It’s so much fun.”

Kara dipped her head down and nibbled on Lena’s ear, enjoying the delighted little squeal it produced, and one hand slid up Lena’s smooth, bare thigh to creep under her dress and settle at her hip.

Lena bit her lip and looked up at her.  “Really?”

Kara nodded.  “You never made love in a field under an open sky full of stars with nobody around for miles?”

Lena laughed, and it was like silver chimes.  “Shockingly, no.”

Kara kissed her soft mouth again.  “You’ve been missing out.”

They lay together, quiet again, kissing deep, gentle kisses and moving against each other.  Kara didn’t know what that perfume was that Lena liked but it smelled delicate and expensive.  Her body was soft and she was generous with it, wrapping her legs around Kara’s hips and seeming to curl all of herself up into Kara as they rocked softly together in the moonlight.  It was hard to imagine anything more perfect.

Until, of course, something heavy thunked against the side of the truck.  Kara jumped up with a start to find Alex sitting next to the truck, astride an ATV with fat, chunky wheels.  “Cheese n’ crackers, Alex!” Kara yelled. “I’m a little busy!”

Lena was trying to hurriedly rearrange herself to look less compromised.  It wasn’t really working.

Alex didn’t laugh, though.  “I know, ‘cause you’re not answering my texts, and you didn’t hear me come roaring up on a damn buggy.”  She paused, nodded in Lena’s direction. “Evenin’, Lena.” She looked back at Kara. “Listen, I need you.  Divo’s wife called. He’s, uh, having an episode and I could kinda use your help. I can give him a sedative but you know I can’t get near him when he gets like that.”

Kara understood the urgency.  She nodded. “Yeah, alright.” She turned to Lena.  “Darlin’ I think I better drop you back at the house–”

“No time for that,” Alex interrupted.  

Kara frowned.  “Alright. Just, Lena, when we get there, make sure you stay in the truck.”

  
  


**

 

Divo was a big fellow who lived at the edge of town and sometimes helped out on the farm.  He was big as the broadside of a barn, and strong, and kindly. He was still learning English but he understood more than he spoke.  And he had been through some real tough times before he and his wife landed here.

When they arrived at his little cottage, he was in the front yard, and he was smashing at a car on blocks with a metal baseball bat.  The clanging and banging was loud even from inside the truck. “He’s gonna get the wrong kind of attention, making a racket like that,” Kara muttered.  She jumped out of the truck. 

“Divo!” she called.

He only responded with an anguished howl and kept whacking.  Kara drew closer. “Divo, buddy, you gotta stop, man. You’re scarin’ Zina and you’re gonna wake up everyone’s chickens.”  

He didn’t seem to really register her presence.  She moved in carefully. He took a swing at her, but she ducked, grabbed the bat, and tossed it away.  Then she pounced on him, wrapped both her arms around his impossibly broad biceps and pinned his arms against his sides.

“It’s okay, Divo.  You’re not there anymore.  You’re safe. You’re here.”  He continued struggling, but she held him tight. “You’re gonna calm down, now.  I know what it is to lose what you lost… your home… your family … it never stops hurting.  But you can get better.” His struggling became less forceful. “I got better, Divo. You can too.  You got Zina. You got a place to live. You got the farm. Them soybean plants love you, Divo. You ain’t gonna go doing something dumb and getting locked up, ‘cause who’s gonna talk your language to the soybean plants?”

He stopped struggling.

“Let Alex give you a shot, okay?  It’s gonna help you. You’re gonna calm down and it’s gonna stop hurting.  And then tomorrow she’ll come visit and make sure you’re alright.”

Divo seemed to grunt in assent.  Kara nodded at Alex. She came closer, holding a needle.  She stuck it into Divo’s arm, to his mild grunt of discomfort, and then a moment later, all the tension drained out of him.  He leaned heavily against Kara. She rearranged them, hooked an arm around his waist, and with Alex on the other side of him, they walked him back to the house.

She went back to the truck to find Lena staring at her with eyes full of undefinable emotion.  “What was all that?”

“He’s got some real bad PTSD.  He lost his whole family, except for his wife, in a fire.  Things are real bad where he came from. It was some kind of a sectarian war thing.  Alex helps him when she can, but sometimes when he’s having a real bad time, I have to help her out.”

“Why didn’t she just call the cops?”

Kara sighed.  “Divo and his wife are undocumented.  It would cause more problems than it solved.”

“So Alex just treats his PTSD and you all kind of just hope for the best?”

“Pretty much.”

Lena shook her head.  It seemed likely to Kara that the reality of this particular issue had not really been something Lena had thought much about before.

“What…”  Lena began hesitantly.  “I don’t want to pry if you don’t want to talk about it, but… what did you mean when you said you knew what it was to lose your home and family?”

Kara sighed heavily.  “Well, I’m adopted. My folks died in a fire.  I had an aunt, but she was in jail, and a cousin, but he was too young and too damn feckless anyhow and couldn’t take care of me.  So the Danvers family took me in. I’m real lucky.”

Lena smiled sadly.  “I’m adopted, too, you know.”

Kara was surprised.  “Really? You look so much like your mom in the pictures I’ve seen.”

Lena nodded.  “Yeah, it’s kind of funny, because we’re not related at all.  My dad was always very loving with me, but my mom… not so much.  She always favored my brother. And he was always a little bit of a dick.  You’re lucky you and Alex have such a great relationship.”

“Well, I bet your brother loves you more than he knows how to show.  Aspies have trouble sometimes with that kind of thing.” They clasped hands for a minute in the dark.  

Sometimes it was hard to argue with the notion that fate guided things, put certain people in your path.  Sometimes it felt like someone was made to be in just the right place at just the right time. 

  
  


**

  
  


The rest of their weekend together was sweet.  They went to the peach festival and drank peach juice and ate sticky peach pie and played the beanbag toss game and Kara played the game where you whacked the ballast with the hammer and sent the little weight shooting up as high as you could.  She rang the bell, of course, and won Lena a giant teddy bear.

They managed to sneak in a little afternoon lovemaking in Kara’s bedroom in the house she shared with Alex on the property behind the main house.  Alex was checking in on Divo. So they had sex on the couch, giggling like a couple of idiot teenagers, and then after an overly long goodbye kiss that ended in more sex on the couch, Lena threw her travel bag in the truck of her rental and left for ATL.

Kara sat on the porch that evening after dinner with Alex, who was enjoying a glass of whiskey.

“Your girlfriend have a good time?” Alex asked.

“I don’t know if she’s my girlfriend,” Kara hedged.

“How many times do you two talk in a week?”

Kara shrugged.  “Not every day. But a lot.”

“How many times you have phone sex?”

“None of your damn business.”

“I made sure to take a long time at Divo’s, I hope y’all had fun.”

Kara couldn’t help grinning.  “We did.”   


Alex smiled, nodding.  “That girl is crazy about you.”

Kara snorted.  “Bah.”

“She is.  And I ain’t seen you this fuckin’ goofy over someone since Sam.”

Kara put her feet up on a milk crate.  Yes, this warm, fluttery feeling inside sure felt like she was crazy about Lena Luthor.  Girls like that didn’t just fall out of the sky every day.

She noticed a bright white light in the sky, very small at first, but it seemed to be growing larger.  “Alex,” she whispered, “what in heck is that?”

“I don’t know,” Alex whispered back.  “Maybe it’s a helicopter?”

Kara watched.  It wasn’t moving like a helicopter.  “I dunno…”

The light grew, and grew closer.  It was clearly attached to something that was flying, intending to land right here, on this property.  It hovered over the corn maze and after a moment, decided to set itself down there.

“See?” Kara murmured, feeling as if she was having an out of body experience.  “You made fun of my crop circles.”

“Yeah,” Alex muttered back.  She reached underneath a floorboard on the porch and took out a shotgun. “Congratulations, you get to say you told me so.”


	7. Chapter 7

Cat was not a particularly sympathetic ear today.

Lena picked distractedly at her couscous while Cat busily slathered her own chef’s salad with equal parts balsamic vinaigrette and sarcasm.  “...and if Thompson thinks he’s going to outmaneuver me on this he can suck my metaphorical dick.”

Lena barely responded with a “hm.”

Cat stopped talking, leaned forward and snapped her fingers near Lena’s face.  “Hello? Luthor? You usually like hearing about board machinations and nonexistent dicks.  What’s with you today?”

Lena sighed.  “I don’t know, Cat.  I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on with me and Kara.”

Cat rolled her eyes.  “Oh, that. Christ, Lena, why do you complicate everything?  You’ve got yourself a ridiculously hot baby butch you can climb like a tree and she lives on the other side of the country so therefore doesn’t require constant maintenance.  What more can you possibly want?”

Lena shook her head.  “I know, Cat. I just don’t… I don’t know if it’s a relationship or what.”

Cat flicked a crouton at her, which bounced off her chin and into her sparkling water.  “You’ve visited each other what, twice? Why do you have to make a decision about that now?”

“I know,” Lena sighed.  “But we talk all the time and… I really like her.  I just don’t know what she’s looking for out of it.”  She bought herself a few moments by picking the crouton out of her water and taking a drink.  “Well, and now we were talking about her coming in next weekend and she’s cancelling.”

Cat frowned.  “Well, did something happen on your last visit?  How did you leave things?”

“We … had a very nice goodbye.”

“So you banged.”

Lena groaned.  “Must you?”

“Yes I must.  Get me my own farm girl and then I won’t bother you.  How many times?”

“How many times what?”

Cat gave her a dramatic eyeroll.  “How many times did you…  _ you know _ ?”

“A… a few.”  Lena shifted a little.  Cat was clearly not satisfied with that answer.  “Three… and a half?”

“A half!”

“We got interrupted once.  Anyway, supposedly her aunt just dropped into town, who she hasn’t seen since she was a kid.”

Cat thought for a moment.  “Well, that could be legitimate.  This is the one who was in jail or something?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, that seems a little bit white trash, honestly–”

Lena winced a little at the term.

“–but so, the girl is trying to take care of her family.  That sounds very decent.” Cat gave her a soft, sympathetic look of the sort she didn’t dole out very often.  “I know you like her. But relax. Don’t be such a U-Haul lesbian about this. People have lives.”

Lena nodded.  She didn’t want to talk about it anymore.  “So, what did you tell Thompson?”

  
  


**

  
  


Her friend Sara wasn’t much better.

Sara Lance was… well, Lena had sort of worked out that she must be some sort of method actor or something.  She was forever showing up to their evenings out in oddball period wear. The night they met, in fact, at Rubyfruit, she’d been decked out in some seriously jaw-dropping vintage forties silk dress, with her hair in victory curls and the whole nine.  She asked Lena to dance and said she’d just got back from a party with Eleanor Roosevelt. That was pretty much how conversations with Sara went. She was a weirdo, but she was hot, and she was fun, and sometimes, much like Cat, she had some pretty solid advice.

So this evening they’d met for cocktails at The Velvet Glove.  Sara was wearing feudal Japanese armor, which was getting her some funny looks from the women at the end of the bar, but Sara didn’t care, and Lena was used to it.

“So let me guess,” Lena hazarded, “you were just fighting alongside Emperor Kogon’s men in 14th century Japan?”

Sara applauded.  “Good guess. Hanazono.  But you were in the right ballpark.”

Lena shook her head and nodded at the long prop sword hanging from Sara’s belt.  “I can’t believe the bouncer let you in with that.”

“Eh, she knows me.”  She drained one of the three shots of whiskey in front of her.  “So, this girl you’re in love with,” she prompted. Lena started to protest but Sara just held a hand up.  “Lena, don’t. You are probably the worst I’ve ever met at hiding your feelings.”

“I just…”  She sighed.  “I just don’t know where it’s going…”

Sara shook her head.  “Why does it have to be going somewhere?  I mean, it’s hot, right?”

Lena nodded.  That was an understatement, she thought.  She could still feel the blankets under her back and Kara’s weight on top of her in the back of the pickup truck, how their bodies just fit perfectly, reached for each other, craved each other…. She shook the thought away.  “Yeah, very.”

“So stop sweating it.  Enjoy it and see where it goes.”  Sara paused, realizing this wasn’t the help Lena was looking for.  “You’re brooding. Stop it.”

“I just feel like it’s becoming more than that for me, and… I don’t know where she’s at.”

Sara tipped back another shot and banged her gauntleted fist down on the top of the bar.  “Lena, have you tried asking her?”

Lena looked blankly at her.  

“Of course you haven’t.  God, Cat’s right. You useless lesbian.”  She shook her head. “You’d rather sit around and brood.”

Lena was afraid of pushing too hard and blowing it.  She did, she realized, actually did need to brood a bit.  Cat and Sara were both the wrong company for that. 

  
  


**

  
  


The door opened before she even rang the bell.  Lex’s giant gay slab of a butler opened the door, wearing decidedly un-butler-like attire, as usual - a loud Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts.  He grinned at her and stood aside. “Hello, Miss Lena,” he half-said, half-sang, “it’s so good to see you.”

She could understand why Lex kept him around; his Latino good looks and gay-boy gym body were easy on the eyes.  She never could understand why the guy stayed though, or why he dealt with Lex’s wet blanket of a personality. “Hi, Manuel!  How are you?”

“Same as always.”  

“Where’s my brother?”

He gave a dismissive flick of the wrist.  “Oh, you know,” he replied airily, leading her upstairs, “on the veranda, on his _ fainting couch _ , I assume.”  He snickered a little.

Lena rolled her eyes and shook her head.  “How is he?” she inquired as they ascended the wide staircase to the second level of his mansion.  She never understood where he got the taste for such frou-frou Victorian nonsense, but it was indelibly his style.

“Oh,” he replied in his sing-song, lightly accented English.  “He’s doing all his hits today.”

Lena knew his hits well.  “We need alien detection technology, someone has to deal with the fact that California is going to break off and fall into the sea in the next twenty years, and–”

Manuel finished in unison with her.  “WHY WON’T SUPERMAN RETURN MY CALLS?”

He opened a door onto the veranda, and showed her outside.  Lex was, as they had expected, stretched out on a plush Victorian fainting couch with his laptop cradled on his thighs, looking about as pale and tired as he usually did.

“Hey Lena,” he said without looking up.  His voice was a flat monotone, which didn’t mean he was unhappy to see her, but merely consumed with ennui and trying to calculate a differential to mathematically express the meaninglessness of life.

“Really, Lexy?  A fainting couch?”  

“It’s super comfy,” he replied.  “You want Jeeves to bring one up for you?”

“Um, no, I’m good.  And… isn’t his name Manuel?”

“Yeah but…”  Lex paused a moment, tapping out something on his laptop.  “Look, my penpal says I should be living my best life, and…”  He paused with a dramatic sigh. “...my best life includes a butler named Jeeves.”

Lena shook her head.

“Jeeves,” he called, “can you bring another fainting couch for my sister?”

“OK, Lucas,” Manuel sassed back, and disappeared.

Lena laughed a little.  Manuel wasn’t having any of Lex’s nonsense.  And that, strangely, was probably what made their situation work.  “Penpal?” she inquired, strolling closer. It was a typically sunny California day, which didn’t quite fit with Lex’s usual mood.  

“Yeah,” he responded evenly, still not looking up.  “When I was in Club Fed, they put some of us a penpal program.  Talking to this girl on the east coast somewhere. We still email sometimes.”  He shrugged. Lex had done time in a minimum security prison for some hacking activities.

“You do know what fainting couches were for, right?  Victorian ladies getting special ‘pelvic treatments’ for hysteria?”

Lex finally looked up.  “If you’re asking whether Jeeves takes care of me like that, the answer is no.”  His tone was a little more clipped at that.

Manuel appeared a moment later with another couch identical to the one Lex was on.  He set it down facing Lex’s and disappeared again. Lena lowered herself onto it and nestled her back into the corner.  She had to admit it was rather comfortable. Manuel appeared a moment later with a parasol. “Here, Chad, honey, it’s too bright out here for your pasty self.”  He somehow poked it into something on the back of Lex’s couch and shielded him from the sun. He disappeared again.

“So what brings you here?” Lex asked, still tapping away.  

“I’m in a brooding kind of mood.  Figured you’re good company for that.”

Lex made a little noise of assent.  

After an awkward pause, Lena remembered that Lex was fairly poor at conversation.  “I’ve been seeing this girl, and I like her, and I don’t know how she feels and I don’t want to push the issue and blow things with her.”

“I see,” he said.  “So, in love, then?”  His voice took on a little edge… resentful, maybe?  She couldn’t quite tell, but it wasn’t a good feeling, she could work out that much.  Sometimes he insisted he wasn’t interested in love. Sometimes he insisted that nobody would ever love him.  Lena never knew which kind of week it was going to be. 

“Maybe,” she sighed.

Another long silence followed, in which she thought of Kara’s radiant smile, her strong arms, her goofy laugh, her rock hard abs, her enthusiastic kisses…

“Mm, look at you,” Lex murmured, glancing up.  “She’s really done you in.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You’re feeling lost and wondering whether she could ever feel like that about you.”

Lena nodded, smiling a sad, wry smile.  The lovemaking felt real, but you never knew, did you.  You never knew what was underneath, til you did.

“Well, that’s kind of what I feel like all the time,” he sighed.  

This came as something of a revelation.  Lex’s dull, flat affect often made him hard to read, harder to sympathize with, and damn near impossible to connect with.  It never occurred to her that maybe he worried about it. That maybe, he felt unlovable. That it even mattered to him.

She sat forward and took up the teapot that sat on the small table between them.  She poured them each a cup of tea. They drank quietly in the sun on the veranda, while some lachrymose classical drifted softly out of one of the third floor windows.  Manuel always knew what Lex wanted to hear. And at the moment, Lena realized it was just right for her too. Sometimes misery didn’t want to be fixed, it just wanted company.  She knew what she was going to do. But for now, she thought, it was better to just take a few moments to feel.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one's a little long. Sorry. ;)

Kara was sitting, rocking back and forth a little, in the hayloft of the larger of the two barns behind the house.  She had still not entirely absorbed what she was seeing.

Her aunt was lying prone, unconscious in the hay.  Kara remembered their last meeting, when she was only twelve, and Astra, her mother’s twin and her most favorite family member apart from her parents, was torn away from her by armed enforcers.  She had wept. She had not understood. Her mother explained that her aunt had done something terrible, and though it may have been for good reasons, she still had to reckon for her crime as anyone else would.

She remembered how she had sobbed, not really understanding.  Astra had loved her like a second mother, would come home from campaigns with surprises, artifacts, curios from everywhere she’d traveled and fought.  Kara would sometimes crawl into bed with her when she was asleep in the guest bedroom. Astra had been sentenced by her own twin sister, sent to Fort Rozz, and never seen again.  Till now.

Her small, sleek ship (Kara did not recognize its origins but it wasn’t from their home) had set itself down in the middle of the crop circle.  The hatch opened, and Astra had stepped out. Alex had her shotgun leveled on her, but Kara stepped in between them, not believing her eyes. “Astra?” she whispered.

“Little one,” Astra had responded, and then fainted.

Alex and Kara had debated what to do with her and decided that at least for now, it was better to put her up in the hayloft.  God forbid they brought her in the house and she woke up from a nightmare or something and ended up blowing out the living room wall.  It took her and Alex together to figure out getting the pod into the barn and powering it down to avoid any other surprises.

“So,” Alex sighed heavily, leaning against a one of the wooden posts holding up the loft, “is this the real reason you’ve been making those crop circles?”  

“No,” Kara answered.  “I just … I mean, I always thought that’s what they were for, you know… aliens… but I wasn’t specifically…”  She sighed. “I didn’t know she was still alive. I was just making them for fun. And... In case anyone wanted to land here, I figured they’d know we were a safe place.”

Alex came over and climbed up the ladder.  She gazed for a long time at Astra with a look Kara couldn’t quite read.  “I hope we can trust her,” was all she said.

Kara wanted to promise that they could, but the fact was, she didn’t know.  She had no idea what her aunt had been through in the last several years or how she’d even gotten here.

“I’m going to bed.  Call me if you need me.”  Alex trudged back up to the house.

Kara spent another moment looking at Astra.  She looked a little wan. Wherever she’d come from, the trip had not been a gentle one and it looked like it might well have been a while since she’d eaten.  How had she found this place? She squeezed her aunt’s hand.

Astra stirred.  She opened her eyes.  “Little one,” she sighed again.  She lifted her head and glanced around.  “Am I dead?”

Kara shook her head.  “No. I thought you were, though.  I never thought I’d see you again.”

Astra squeezed back.  “It takes more than hard time in the worst prison in the known galaxy and a very bad trip across it in an undersupplied pod to kill me.”  She sounded a little broken.

“Did you escape?”

Astra nodded.  It was still asking a lot of her to ask her to speak.

“Listen… you need to rest, but… you need to understand something.  The yellow sun of this world, it’s… it’s going to make you different.  You’re going to be strong, really strong, and you’ll be able to fly unaided, and you’ll have a lot of other gifts, too.  Please don’t try to use any of them without me. I’ll help you.” To her surprise, Kara realized that just a little of her southern drawl had faded as she spoke to her aunt.

“You sound strange, little one,” Astra answered sleepily.  “But I will do as you ask.” She turned onto her side, closed her eyes, and patted the hay.  “Here, come and lie down.”

And just as she had done when she was small, Kara curled up next to her aunt.  Whatever Astra had done, suddenly Kara Danvers was no longer the only surviving daughter of a lost world.    

  
  


**

  
  


Kara woke the next morning to find that Astra had rolled out of the hayloft and was asleep, floating in the air above the ground.  The sun streamed through the east windows near the top of the wall, casting a soft glow around her, as if it was suspending her there.  Kara smiled a little. She remembered when stuff like that used to happen to her. 

She had had plans to see Lena in two weeks, but it seemed very unlikely that this was going to be reasonable, given everything that Astra was going to be going through.  Before she could pick up her phone and call, though, her aunt woke up, realized what was happening to her, and suddenly dropped like a stone, leaving an Astra-shaped depression in the dirt floor.  She lay flat on her back for a moment, looking up at the ceiling, and then remarked, “That … did not hurt.”

“Well, you’re uh, not in Kansas anymore,” Kara muttered.

“I was never in Kansas.”

Kara sighed.  Right. She had spent the last decade and change in a culture they didn’t share anymore.  “I’ll explain later.” At least Astra had managed to do some sort of English crash course in the pod.  That would help things along a little.

Astra sat up.  “What is… I hear…”  She tilted her head, listening.  “...so much life… beasts and… insects… water flowing?”  She squeezed her eyes shut. “It is so loud,” she complained, looking very uncomfortable.  “How do you stand it?”

So that was the first of their lessons about learning to filter one’s senses.  Astra learned quickly, but Kara wasn’t too surprised; her aunt’s military training had made her an intensely physical person, aware of her body and senses and able to manage them under all kinds of extreme environments.  This was just one more.

They spent time just talking, learning about each other’s lives since they parted.  Prison was brutal and miserable, and Astra didn’t want to talk much about it. She finally told Kara why exactly she had been sent there; it was because Krypton was dying, and the Council of Elders knew it, and were doing nothing.  So she and her husband at the time, Non, had blown up a few government buildings to try and get their attention. The buildings had not been entirely empty as they were supposed to be. Non had killed a guard. Conspiracy, destruction of government property, terrorism, murder… it was not a pretty picture.  She was lucky that she hadn’t been executed. It was only because her own sister was judging her that she was able to go to Fort Rozz, the floating prison known as one of the worst in the sector.

Kara understood now why her mother had so much grief at sending her away.  She knew Astra was right. Kara remembered the blood red sky of her childhood, and a dozen other things that had been tucked away in her head.  She remembered her home, and the hymns to Rao at sunrise and sunset, and her mother, and … she embraced Astra for a long time, overwhelmed. She was glad to be able to hug someone without having to worry about breaking them.  She’d been here a long time and gotten used to what the yellow sun did to her, but it was nice for just a moment to not have to think about it.

Kara talked about her life here.  When she mentioned that her cousin, Kal-El, had placed her here because he had no idea how to care for her, Astra harumphed.  “I never liked that side of the family,” she remarked.

Kara smiled faintly at this.  

Astra hung on her words as she talked about her life with the Danvers family, her love for her sister, her passion for growing green things and tending the soil, and for science and study to make those things better.  Astra was eager to experience fresh air and water and life springing forth from the earth. 

“And are you betrothed yet?”

Kara shook her head.  How to explain that?

“You are getting on, little one.  It is past time.”

Kara laughed.  “Well, it doesn’t really work like that, here.  I’ll explain, I promise, but we don’t pick our partners till we’re adults.”

“And have you picked one?”

Kara shook her head.  “I… there’s someone I like.  I don’t know what… what’s going to come of it just yet.  But I’m hopeful.” Lena. She was going to have to call Lena at some point.

The conversation was keeping Astra grounded in the moment.  She was focusing on the sound of Kara’s voice and it helped her to ignore all the other sounds.  Kara decided to read to her, just to keep the sound of her voice going. All she had in the barn apart from some scientific reference texts, was (for some reason) a battered copy of “Streetcar Named Desire”, so she sat with Astra in the hay and began reading.  Time dripped by as Astra closed her eyes and listened.

_ “..When we first met, me and you, you thought I was common. How right you was, baby. I was common as dirt. You showed me the snapshot of the place with the columns. I pulled you down off them columns and how you loved it, having them colored lights going! And wasn't we happy together, wasn't it all okay till she showed here?" _

She was vaguely aware of Alex’s footsteps, entering the barn, walking heavily up to the ladder of the hayloft, and softly calling, “STELLLAAAAAAA!”

Kara and Astra both jumped a little.  “Good lord, Alex!” Kara exclaimed.

Alex laughed a little.  “Sorry. I was wondering where I’d left that.”

Kara closed the book and chucked it at her.  “Whaddya want?”

Alex ducked the flying book, then yawned.  “Aw, you know,” she said, oddly cheerful. “Just figured you two scamps would be hungry.  ‘Specially Dorothy over there.”

“My name is not–” Astra began to protest.

“It’s a joke, I’ll explain later,” Kara said quickly.  She sniffed the air. “You and Eliza been making hash and biscuits?”

Alex nodded.

Kara sniffed again.  “That’s smoked trout hash, ain’t it.”

Alex grinned.  “Yeah.” She disappeared, and produced two very large plates, piled with mountains of smoked trout hash, eggs, fluffy biscuits, and a generous dollop of grits with what looked like red-eye gravy.  She handed them up to the loft along with silverware, and then came back with two individual quarts of orange juice. “No sense bringing out glasses,” she chuckled. 

Kara smiled appreciatively.  “You traveling today?”

Alex wrinkled her nose.  “Naw. Gonna go check up on Divo though.  I asked J’onn for a couple of days off, so Lucy’s gonna take my local runs.”

Kara furrowed her brow.  “Ain’t she a little quick on the trigger for your type of thing?”

Alex laughed.  “Least of her problems.  But no, she’ll be fine. Anyway, I figured I’d stay put for a couple of days, just in case you need an extra hand.”

“Thanks, Alex.  We’re good now, but I might need you later.”

“Thank you, human,” Astra added.  

Alex gave her a funny look.  “You’re welcome, ma’am,” she replied after a beat of silence. She glanced between them.  “Alright well, I’m gonna head back to the house before Jeremiah eats all the damn hash. I’ll check on you later.”

And Kara heard Alex muttering halfway up to the house, “...trust that dang Kryptonian as far as I can throw her…”

Astra glanced at Kara.  “Why does she wish to throw me?”   
  


**

 

A couple of days blew by, somehow both tortuously long and running together in a blur.  Kara took a break from the market and put off some of her chores on the farm that week. She took Astra to the creek to wade in the water, had her stand under the showers, brought her out into the fields to show her how far she could see, now.  They hadn’t worked on flight yet, but they would. And every time she sat down and Astra took a break to sleep off the dramatic changes, Kara would wearily think,  _ Lena.  I have to call Lena. _

Finally, while Astra was napping on the couch up at the house (they had finally decided to graduate her once she’d gotten hold of things a bit), Kara sat down at the kitchen table and called her. 

“How have you been?” Lena asked her, sounding a little wary.

“Missing you, to tell you the truth,” Kara sighed.  “Last couple of days have been something else.”

Lena’s concern flooded warm over the airwaves.  “Why? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m ok.  Just, my aunt dropped into town and it’s… it’s a lot to deal with.  I ain’t seen her since I was twelve.”

“This is the one who was in jail?”

“Yeah.”

“She’s not … I mean, you’re safe, right?”

Kara sighed.  “Yeah, it was like, uh… kind of a political protest thing.  She’s not a murderer or anything. Even if she was, I can take care of myself.  But, you know … she was in there a long time. And this is… well, you know. It’s a different world.”  Kara wondered how long she could keep telling Lena things were true but not entirely true.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Lena said, relaxing a little.  “Is it good to see her?”

“Good to have family again,” Kara admitted.  “It’s hard, there’s just a lot for her to get used to.”

Lena made a little noise of sympathy.  “My brother did a little time in Club Fed, did I ever mention that?”

“I read the papers,” Kara joked gently.  “I don’t live under a mushroom.”

“Right.  Well anyway, even a place like that, white collar, minimum security… there was still an adjustment period when he got out.”  There was a long pause filled with crickets and Lena’s soft breathing. Finally, she said, “Just know that I get how hard it is, dealing with that.”

Kara breathed a heavy sigh.  “Thanks. I… I don’t think I can come out next weekend, though.  It’s too much. I’ll call as much as I can. I just have no idea what we’re gonna do with her.”

Lena was quiet for a moment.  “Of course. Don’t worry. Take care of what you have to take care of.  I’ll see you when I see you.” 

“I’m not blowing you off,” Kara promised, feeling Lena’s unspoken worry.  “I really did want to see you. I hope you believe me.”

“Of course.  Don’t worry about it.”

Naturally, Kara did.

  
  


***

  
  


Astra was nervous and a little afraid of what this new world held for her, and unfortunately, sometimes she would mask it with arrogance when Alex was around. Especially, she insisted on addressing her as “Human” despite being told her name several times.  Alex bore it politely enough, but at some point she pulled Kara aside and whispered, “You need to find something for your aunt to do or I’m gonna run her over with that truck.”

Kara chuckled tiredly.  “Don’t do that. You’ll just make her mad, and destroy the truck.”

So Kara figured she needed a little training on managing her new strength.  She’d had her load and unload the hay for the horses about half a dozen times.  A couple of bales ended at the far end of the cornfield. But Astra was eager to learn, and loved that her niece was spending her life growing things from the earth.  She was proud. She wanted to help. 

After bringing it out to the horses, they broke for dinner.  Kara pulled together some leftover pot roast and some fresh bread she’d made, and made sandwiches and a giant pitcher of sweet tea.  Astra ate all of it ravenously. Kara’s pocket buzzed while they ate. She took it out. There was a little text from Lena. All it said was, “Hey.  You ok?”

Kara sighed.  

Astra noticed.  “Little one, what is the matter?”

Kara shrugged.  “Nothing, it’s just… I’m kinda neglecting someone.”

Astra frowned.  “My presence is a disturbance.”

Kara shook her head.  “No! You don’t understand how happy I am to see you!  I’m glad to have this time with you.” There was a lot left unspoken at the end of that:  _ but there’s this girl and I really like her and by the way that’s a thing here, girls and girls, you should know that, and also... _

Astra gazed at her for a moment.  “Who are you neglecting?”

“Well…”

“It is not the person to whom you wish to be betrothed, is it?”

Kara laughed.  “Look, I hadn’t gotten that far, Astra, I just… I like her, that’s all.”

Astra’s eyebrow barely moved.  “Her?”

Kara nodded.

“So that is done here as well.  I had not expected it from such a primitive culture.”

Not the answer Kara was expecting.  “Do you… you don’t…mind?”

“Of course not.”  Astra poured herself another full glass of tea.  “Who is she?”

“She’s in charge of a…”  Kara paused, trying to figure out how to translate all these things into words that would make sense to Astra.  “...a large business concern, very powerful and prosperous.”

Astra waved dismissively.  “Yes, but who  _ is _ she?  Is she wealthy, clever, kind, good, beautiful, brave, strong?  Fortunes come and go. It is her character that concerns me.”

Kara smiled, and thought of the last time she’d seen her.  “Beautiful, yes. Kind, yes. Brilliant? Yes, ma’am, I’d say she’s a damn genius.  I think… from what I’ve seen, anyhow… she’s got a good soul. She wants to help people.  And… she thinks I’m beautiful, too, which is… well it’s weird for me.”

“Is she a suitable mate, then?”

Kara smiled, thinking of Lena’s face that night in the dark of the truck, after she’d gone to help Divo.  How they’d connected, quietly, perfectly. “I don’t know if I’m ready to say that, because we only just met,” she said carefully, “but… I sure think she could be.  I sure think if any two people on this earth were made to love each other, it could be us.”

Astra gently touched Kara’s shoulder.  “Then what are you doing sitting here?”

 

**

  
  


Lena looked at the clock.  It was closing in on seven.  Early night for her. She set her Behmo coffee machine to wake up and start making her coffee at six a.m.  She’d go into the office early tomorrow and catch up on some of what she’d been neglecting lately. She stood for a moment in the kitchen, sipping a sparkling water and listening to the relentless tap of the rain outside.

The buzzer rang.  She frowned. She wasn’t expecting anyone, and it was a little late for package deliveries.

She went to the elevator door and opened it, and standing there, in jeans stained darker blue by the rain and a green tee shirt emblazoned “FARMERS DO IT ON TRACTORS” that was clinging to her body, was Kara Danvers.

“Sorry,” she panted, wiping her dripping face. “I probably shoulda called but–”

Lena yanked her inside, pulled her tight against her body, and kissed her hard.  She didn’t mind that Kara was soaked to the bone. She came up for a moment of air.

“And I wanted you to know I couldn’t stay away from–”

Lena kissed her again.  

“You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time,” Kara finally whispered.  “I don’t wanna mess it up.”

Lena smiled, and ran a hand over her soft cheek.  “You’re doing fine. But why don’t we get you out of those wet clothes?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”


	9. Chapter 9

Lena didn’t understand how Kara could afford to fly all the way out to National City just to be with her for a night and then have to back the next day, but she didn’t care.  Kara had made it clear how she felt, and Lena made it clear too; this was still new, but it felt like it was going somewhere. And neither one of them wanted the other to be confused about that.

The two weeks after that crawled by.  They tried to talk as often as they could but Kara was still busy with her aunt, and trying to catch up on work that she’d gotten behind on in the first few weeks that her aunt was there.  It wasn’t as much as she wanted. But at least she knew where she was at.

“So listen,” Kara was saying in that low, sweet drawl that she used when she wanted Lena to do something, “Jeremiah and Eliza throw a pretty big barbecue every Fourth of July.  Half the dang town comes. Kegs from a local micro-brewer and the whole works. Eliza marinates the ribs in a bourbon sauce for days ahead of time, Jeremiah rolls out the big Weber and at night, there’s a light show.”

“Fireworks?”

“Naw,” Kara explained, “too many vets with PTSD in this town.  But Barry has some lasers and stuff that he borrows off of his work at the lab and he and his friend put on a pretty nice thing.  Whaddya think?”

“Of course I’ll come!”

“You can even bring a couple of friends, if you want.  Bring Cat. And your crazy friend Sara, she sounds like fun.”

Lena chuckled.  She had a feeling it might be dangerous letting those two loose at a party with alcohol and that many cute country bumpkins but there was the distinct possibility that it could also be entertaining.  

 

***

 

Kara and Alex stood on the porch of their place.  It was morning. Guests would start arriving in about four hours.  Alex had set up the space in back of the barn for lawn bowling, cornhole games, and a version of lawn darts that she’d personally defanged to avoid injury.  They were taking a breather. “So she’s coming?”

Kara nodded.  “Yeah. Think she’s bringing some of her crazy gal pals, too.”

“They into girls?”

Kara shrugged.  “Think so.”

“Think I might have a– Astra, don’t put those folding chairs by the sprinklers, they’re gonna rust!  Stick ‘em out by the orchard.”

Astra turned, and fixed Alex with an unreadable look.  “As you wish, Human.” She bent down, picked up more folding chairs that a human being could possibly handle and began to move them.  Kara saw Alex watching her a little too intently. She groaned internally.

“You know my damn name, Astra!” Alex hollered.  “Lord, she vexes me something fierce,” she muttered under her breath.

“I can hear you, Human!” Astra called over her shoulder as she walked away, carrying a stack of twenty chairs.

Now Kara groaned externally.  “Alex, do not even tell me you are thinking about getting with my aunt!”

Alex snorted, and awkwardly shifted her weight from one foot to the other.  “Please! What? As if! I just told you she vexes me!”

“Uh-huh.  Last time you said that about a woman, it was Maggie Sawyer and you ended up in bed with her.”

Alex flushed.  “Goddamnit,” she whispered.  “I’m going up to the house. I’m sure Eliza needs my help with _something_.”

  


***

 

Lena drove the rented convertible up the long, dirt driveway and parked by the house.  Cat sat up front, and Sara lounged in back with her bare feet hanging over the side of the door.  

“Are those actual corn fields?” Cat demanded.

“Cat, it’s a farm.  What did you think happens here?”  Lena was chuckling.

A brunette in cutoffs and a black tank top jumped down from a tree branch near the house.  She appeared to have been tying the ropes for the tire swing that now hung from the branch.  It was hard to tell from this distance but she looked a little like the picture that Kara had sent of her aunt.  

“Hello,” Cat purred, “what’s that?”

“Mm, I wouldn’t,” Lena advised.  “Pretty sure that’s the aunt.”

“What’s wrong with the aunt?” Sara wanted to know.

“Ex-con.”

Sara’s eyes lit up.  “Really?”

Lena groaned and knocked her head once against the steering wheel, causing the horn to give a short little honk.  “You don’t need to bang the first girl you see, Sara. There are going to be more showing up.”

The three got out of the car and started up toward the house.  Eliza was out front, laying out plastic plates and stacks of red solo cups. Kara came from within, effortlessly toting a big blue cooler full of ice.  “It doesn’t get any less impressive the second time,” Cat commented.

“Down, girl.”  Lena smiled calmly, though.  She waved to Eliza, who waved back.  Kara set down the cooler and came bounding over, picked Lena up, spun her around and kissed her.  

While Lena caught her breath, Kara got to greeting her friends.  “Cat Grant, as I live and breathe. Lena said you might come.” Kara playfully kissed Cat’s hand, and Lena couldn’t help a little snorting laugh.

“I almost just did,” Cat joked, fanning herself.  “But in the meantime, I’ve arrived.”

Kara shook her head, chuckling.  She’d pretty much figured out that this was simply how Cat was, and it was actually sort of fun if you played along.  Lena saw her turn to Sara then, who was clearly looking at her with approval. “You must be Sara.”

“Does my reputation proceed me?”  Sara was actually just wearing normal clothes today, some short shorts and a stripey halter top.  Actually, she kind of looked like she was going roller skating in the seventies, but it was close enough.  

“Naw, I just heard Lena say your name when y’all pulled up.”  

Sara and Cat glanced at each other, shrugged, and grinned at Kara.  Lena looked up and noticed a couple of guys on the roof of the main house.  She noticed a pretty young woman on the ground calling up to them. “Dang it, Barry, be careful up there.  Cisco’s not Superman, you knock him off the roof, he breaks!”

“We’re fine, baby, I swear!” he called back.  “Cisco, you’re fine, ain’tcha? Tell her, please?”

“We’re fine, Iris,” he called.

Another car came rolling up the driveway and parked next to them.  It was a pickup truck with “Amazon Brewing Co., Est. 1991 B.C.” emblazoned on the side.  A towering brunette who looked every bit as big and strong as Kara slid out of the front.  

Sara cursed under her breath in Japanese.  Lena didn’t speak Japanese but she got the general idea.

Kara patted her shoulder.  “‘Scuse me, honey…. Diana!”  She jogged over to the brunette and wrapped her in a totally unrestrained bear hug.  They followed with some secret handshake that involved punches on the shoulder, and then they laughed.  

“Kara, it’s been too long!”  She had an accent. Hard to place, maybe somewhere vaguely Mediterranean, but definitely there, and charming as hell.

Sara cursed under her breath in French.

Diana walked around to the back of the pickup and opened it.

“Your aunt brew us up something good this year?” Kara wanted to know.

“Yes, a Peach Pilsner, a lager, and a Redheaded Stepchild ale.”  She proceeded to drag two full-size kegs out of the back, one in each hand, and glance casually around.  “Where do you want them?”

“On the porch, I guess.  Keep ‘em in the shade for now.”

Kara grabbed the third keg and the two of them strolled up toward the house, muscles in their arms bulging, chatting back and forth as if it were goddamned nothing.  

“I have never felt gayer in my life than I do right now,” Sara muttered, finally in English again.

Lena laughed.  “I know the feeling.”

Jeremiah came out and started firing up the grill.  They smelled the charcoal and lighter fluid. They heard the loud crackling sounds of Alex fiddling with the speaker system to get some music going.  “That couple’s awfully cute,” Cat murmured, gazing at Iris continuing to dicker back and forth with Barry. “Wonder if they ever swing…”

Alex got the stereo connected right, then, and music started pumping out of the large speakers by the window.  Lena recognized it as some very dusty old rock and roll… was it Creedence Clearwater Revival? _“I see… a bad moon risin’.... I see… trouble on the way…”_

A motorcycle came roaring up.  Sara was still staring at Diana and Kara walking away with the kegs, but Lena and Cat turned to see a motorcycle pull with a small, decidedly female figure astride it.  The ffigure pulled off her helmet and a short mop of slightly sweaty, unruly curls tumbled out. She took a moment to gaze across the scene in front of her, the breezes blowing the fringe on her black mesh riding jacket.  She slipped out of it, dismounted, and tossed it over the back of the bike. She had vaguely lupine features and eyes that had a kind of low-burning light in them.

“Someone needs to get that hot woman a drink,” Cat murmured.

Alex looked up from where she was fiddling with the speakers.  She waved to the brunette on the bike. “Hey Lucy!”

Lucy waved back, her arms all tan skin and muscles.

Lena and Sara trudged up to the house while Cat did whatever Cat was going to do.  Well, they were certainly off and running.

She noticed Kara’s aunt watching her from where she stood near the tree, and then retreating back to Kara and Alex’s house.  They came up to the porch to find Kara and Diana tapping the kegs. “What’s your poison, ladies?” Kara asked cheerfully, grabbing a couple of cups.

“Surprise me,” Lena decided.

“Same,” Sara managed, and she was looking at Diana with that look Lena had seen many times, that hunting look where nothing and nobody in the room existed except for the person she was after.  She extended her hand. “Sara Lance.”

Diana smiled in a way that Lena could only describe as fond.  “I know. Diana Prince.”

Sara gave her a confused look.  “Have we met?”

“Apparently not yet,” Diana answered.  “Or maybe we did, but it was centuries ago, in another lifetime.”

Lena chuckled inwardly.  What were the odds that Sara would find another weirdo?  

Sara recovered from her surprise.  “Which of these beers do you recommend?”

“The peach pilsner’s very popular,” Diana suggested.

“Sounds girly,” Sara remarked.  

Diana laughed.  “It is. What’s wrong with that?”  

Sara was briefly at a loss for words, something that rarely ever happened.  She was a player, and generally a good one. “On you? Nothing.”

Diana shook her head and laughed again.  She dispensed a peach pilsner and handed it to Sara.  “Be prepared to expand your mind, Sara Lance.” She glided away, leaving Sara standing holding her beer and wondering what had just happened.

“I’m gonna marry that woman,” she muttered.

  


***

 

The afternoon rolled on and other guests started arriving; Iris’s friend James Olson, the photographer from the paper they both worked at, and Winn, the IT guy.  Divo and his wife and kids turned up, and Lena saw him come over to Kara, say something privately and then hug her with those big tree-trunk arms of his. After a few rounds of slightly tipsy lawn bowling, the city girls decided to sit down and try the barbecue, since the smell was driving them crazy.  The ribs in bourbon sauce were everything Kara said they’d be. So were the hickory smoked pork chops, the chicken wings in sweet mustard sauce and the sweet potato pie.

“Everything is SO GOOD!” Lena cried, swooning over her second plate of food.  

"Told ya," Kara answered with a grin.

"And everyone is SO NICE!"

"Well, you know there's a saying... Get ten people together, and where the Irish would start a fight, Georgians will start a barbecue."  Kara squeezed Lena's knee under the table and a little shiver ran up her back.

Cat was on her third beer and was sitting in between Barry and Iris with an arm draped over each of their shoulders.  They both looked charmed, but a little frightened. Cat often had that effect on people.

Sara was over by the barn, chatting with Alex while she fiddled with the radio some more.

Lena slid an arm around Kara’s waist.  “This is so much fun. I’m so glad I came.”

“Me too, darlin’,” Kara replied, and gave her a little peck on the cheek.  

“So, I see her kind of lingering around the edges of things, but not doing much mingling.  Am I going to get to meet your aunt?”

Kara sighed.  “We’ll see. She’s… I don’t wanna say shy but this is … it’s just kind of a lot for her.  I mean, it is for me too…” She tapped at her ears, which had the earplugs in them. “...but the last time she was around a whole lot of people it wasn’t exactly this type of a thing.  Better she doesn’t push it, you know? So, she watches, and she takes breaks and goes back up to my house as she needs. She’s helping out a little bit behind the scenes, and that’s good for her, I guess.”

Lena nodded.  She wondered whether the aunt had sensory issues like Kara or if it was just about her incarceration and whatever trauma she’d been through there.  Kara didn’t get into a lot of detail but it didn’t exactly sound like wherever Aunt Astra had been, that it was much like where Lex had gone to lock-up.  She leaned in and murmured in Kara’s ear, “But I have to tell you I really like it when you introduce me to people as your girlfriend.”

Kara smiled and murmured into Lena’s ear, “I’m sure glad that’s what you wanna be.”

After a few beers, Lena was feeling a little flirty and she sighed, “I sure hope I can get you alone at some point, Miss Danvers because…”  She affected a truly awful, goofy Southern accent. “...your ass in those jeans, Miss Danvers, is just about givin’ me the vapors.”

Kara hooted and nearly fell backwards off the bench laughing.  “I’ll see what we can do about that.” She looked around. “You know,” she mused, “there’s a hayloft in that barn where I bet nobody’d miss us for a few minutes…”

Lena’s heart leapt a little.  Sex in a hayloft? That was about as country as country could get and at the moment, it sounded amazing.  Kara took her hand and started talking loudly and conspicuously about wanting to show her the workshop and lab that she had in the barn, but as they drew nearer, she suddenly stopped.  Her face fell. “Dang it.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I think somebody’s beat us to it.”

Lena shook her head.  “How can you tell?”

Kara tsked.  “Yep, I can tell.  Your friend Sara is up there with my sister.”

Lena laughed.  She noticed then that Diana was lingering outside the barn door.

“Hey, Diana!” Kara called.  “My sister in there?”

Diana winked.  “Yes, with Lena’s friend.  The one who was going to marry me a few hours ago.”

Lena chuckled.  “Sara talks a lot of crap.”

Diana was sanguine.  “Oh, I don’t mind. Honestly Kara, from what you told me about how things have been going for your sister lately, it seems like she needs a ‘roll in the hay’ with Sara Lance a little more than I do right now.”

And then it dawned on Lena.  “Oh… you’re standing guard.”

Diana shrugged.  “Something like that.  Nobody likes to get walked in on.”

Kara clapped Diana on the shoulder.  “Gallant as usual.” She glanced around.  “Say, have you seen my aunt?”

“The tall, sad-looking one with the white streak in her hair?”

“That’s her.”

She pointed to the cluster of smaller sheds several yards off.  “I think she went into one of the little sheds. Alex wanted her to see if there were any more table umbrellas, I think.”

Some moaning drifted out from inside.  Lena flushed a little and giggled an awkward, drunken giggle.  

“Well thank the lord someone’s taking care of my sister,” Kara laughed.

_“Is that what you like, you sexy little cowgirl?”_

“Oh my god,” Lena squealed.  “I can’t… we gotta…. go somewhere else!”

But Kara and Diana were too busy being amused by the auditory spectacle.

 _“Oh my lord,”_ came Alex’s voice a moment later, _“you are bringing this sinner back to Jesus!”_

There was some more moaning which was clearly building to a crescendo, and Lena, unable to leave and not knowing what else to do, buried her face in her beer and started drinking faster.

And then the entire side of one of the small sheds exploded outward, shattering violently with a loud boom and a splintering of wood, and landing unceremoniously in the grass.  Astra stepped out after it a moment later, looked around with a little confusion, then saw Kara. “I am sorry for the damage, little one. Tell your sister I could not find the umbrellas.”  And then she headed back to the house.

“What in the world..?” Lena breathed.

Kara gave an exhausted groan.  “Damn shed was on its last legs anyhow.”


	10. Chapter 10

Kara headed up to the house to make sure Astra was alright.  Lena decided she’d better check on Cat, since Sara had clearly gotten herself into exactly the sort of trouble she was hoping for.

She found Cat still flirting relentlessly with Barry and Iris.  Lena meandered over and poked a finger into Cat’s chest. “Now listen, Grant…”  Cat gave her an inquiring look and she realized she didn’t know what came after that.  She collected herself. “...I think these nice Southern Baptists have had enough of you sexually harassing them…”

Iris looked sincerely offended.  “Honey, not every country girl is a Baptist. Barry and me, we’re Episcopalian.”  She turned to Barry. “Baptist. As if!” 

Barry was sanguine.  “Aw, she didn’t mean nothin’ by it.”

“I know, I know.”  Iris shook her head.  “Anyhow, Cat… I’ve tried girls.  It wasn’t for me.”

Cat’s eyebrow lifted.  “Oh? Do tell.”

“Yeah, when me and Alex were kids, you know, I figured I’d give it the ol’ college try…”

“Alex Danvers is a disaster,” Cat interrupted.  “Doesn’t count. And if Barry will stop talking about the soil pH by the dam long enough, I’ll gladly explain why.”

Lena shook her head and walked away, the debate continuing to rage as to whether Alex Danvers counted or not.

She wandered up to Kara’s place and found her sitting on the porch with Astra, hugging her tightly.  Lena approached and gave Kara a questioning look.

Kara nodded.  “Yeah, it’s alright, you can come on up.”

Lena climbed the creaky steps and leaned against the wooden railing in front of where Kara and Astra were parked on the porch swing.  “I hope we didn’t get too rowdy for you back there,” she said carefully to Astra. This woman didn’t look like a criminal, she thought.  She just looked tired, and a little lost. 

Astra shook her head and looked up at Lena, seeming to consider her for a moment.  “You are the one my niece is…” Kara squeezed her shoulder. “...fond of.”

Lena nodded, smiling faintly.  “Seems that way.” She wondered why Astra didn’t sound southern.

Astra thought for a moment longer.  “I thought you would be taller.”

Kara looked mortified, but Lena just laughed. “I thought you’d be scarier.”

Astra seemed amused at this.  “You did not tell me she was funny, little one.”

Kara relaxed a little, and squeezed Astra’s shoulders again.  “Listen, I ought to get back, but are you gonna be alright back here?  Maybe you’ll come down to the crick with us later?”

Astra glanced at her, and then at Lena.  “With everyone?”

“Yeah.  You don’t have to.  But I know you enjoy the water.  Just think about it.”

Astra nodded.  “I will.”

Kara kissed her aunt on the cheek and got up, took Lena’s hand, and led her back down to the party.  “I have a lot of questions,” Lena began tiredly.

Kara nodded.  “Bet you do, baby.”  She slid an arm around Lena’s waist.  “But I bet you’re also a little sleepy from all that barbecue and all that beer.”

Lena yawned, nodding.  “Now that you mention it…”  Her statement dissolved into another yawn.  

“Yep.”  Kara looked at the sky.  The late afternoon light was getting thick and golden, and the heat was making Lena’s head feel all wavy and full of cotton.  The walked past the sprinklers, where Cat was standing just askance from the stream, misting herself and telling some terribly entertaining anecdote to Lucy, Barry and Iris.

The families with children were starting to stream away, and more trucks were arriving, with more fantastically ripped women like Diana.  

“Second shift’ll be starting soon,” Kara observed.  “Let’s go have a little nap.”

Lena followed her underneath the tents that had been set up on the stretch of lawn between the barn and the sheds.  Alex, with Astra’s assistance, had laid out a bunch of big rubber gym mats as a sort of floor, and colorful afghans and a number of those big “husband” pillows with the arms, worn-out old corduroy ones, were strewn all over.  “Is this… the napping tent?”

Kara nodded.  “Yeah, kinda.”  She situated herself on the floor, with an afghan spread underneath her and a big pillow behind her head.  She patted the blanket. “C’mon, lie down.”

So Lena curled up next to Kara, laid her head on her chest, and gave herself up to the soft, woozy afternoon.  She wasn’t sure how much time passed before she heard the soft shuffle of bare feet coming near them. She opened one eye.  Alex was crouching down next to them. “Hey, Kara.”

Kara yawned and patted the blanket.  “C’mon, lie down, sexy cowgirl.”

“I hate you.”  

“Uh-huh.”

So Alex laid down on the other side of Kara with her head on Kara’s stomach.  “I kinda feel like a jackass about all that,” she sighed.

Lena reached over and patted Alex’s head.  “Sara’s a hot mess, but she’s a good person.  I mean, she doesn’t really do relationships, but... You guys had a good time.  Don’t feel bad. Kara and I were planning on doing that exact thing, you two just beat us to it.”

They laughed a little, and settled down. 

A little while later, Barry and Iris wandered in.  “Hey Alex,” Iris called softly. “You okay?”

Alex nodded.  “Just feeling like a proper dumbass.”

Iris laughed.  “Knock it off, you damn disaster.”  

Barry crawled over Lena’s legs.  “Pardon me, Lena.” He sorta whomped himself across her and Kara’s bodies in a way that couldn’t have been comfortable but that he didn’t seem to mind, and got his face near Alex’s.  “You done alright, Alex. Everyone was happy for you, you know.”

Iris curled up on the other side of Alex and threw an arm over her.  “Really. You shouldn’t feel dumb. Besides, that city girl is sexy. I don’t even like girls and I’d have probably let her talk me into that hayloft.”

Barry glanced up.  “You would have?”

“Not without you, obviously.”

_ Oh dear God, _ Lena thought with amusement,  _ Cat has gotten into their heads. _

Lena let the drowsiness overcome her.  She woke up a little while later to find Sara napping against her backside, Diana draped over her and Kara from behind the big pillow, and Cat resting comfortable against Iris’s back, murmuring inaudible things in Lucy’s ear.  Lucy looked sleepy, but intrigued. Lena chuckled silently to herself, and surrendered herself to the nap.

  
  


***

 

When Lena woke up again, the sun had almost set.  The sky was deep pink with striations of purple clouds in the west, and a few stars fading to life in the east.  She noticed the sound of crickets, but more than that, the sound of an acoustic guitar being strummed. It had the buzzy, flattened sound of a guitar that was someone’s favorite beater and spent a lot of time being dragged around to barbecues and picnics and outdoor occasions.  It was James, Iris’s photographer friend from the paper. He wandered past the napping tent with it hanging from his neck, strumming as he walked. 

Kara stirred first.  “Jimmy Olson!” she called.  “You come back here with that guitar.”

“I’m going to the fire pit,” he called back cheerfully.  “Some of Diana’s friends got it going and I think they’re getting ready to do a drum circle or some such.  Meet me over there.”

The pile of bodies shifted and slowly disentangled, and they wandered out to the fire pit.  Sure enough, there was a bit of a crowd back there and some of them had various kinds of hand drums.  James found the folding chairs and parked himself in one, and looked up at Kara and Barry expectantly, strumming for a few moments without saying anything.  Kara seemed to recognize what he was strumming. “Really? Ain’t that a little sleepy?”

“But,” James protested, “look at that.”  He nodded up at the sky, to where the moon was beginning to show itself.  

Barry and Kara relented.  They parked themselves next to James and sang “Blue Moon.”  Barry’s voice was a sweet tenor, and Kara’s was low and smooth.  Their harmonies were like hand in glove. They’d clearly sung this one together before.  Lena and Iris sat next to each other, listening. 

“I had no idea she could sing,” Lena sighed, knowing she was positively dewy-eyed over it and not caring one bit.

“Yep.  There are layers to that girl.”  Iris patted her shoulder. “She’s real special, if you don’t mind me saying.”

Lena sighed.  She didn’t mind.  She gazed at the twinkling lights in among the trees in the orchard.  “What are those little lights?” she wondered.

“Fairies,” Diana answered from just behind her.

Lena laughed.  “Come on.”

“Well,” Diana amended, “only some are fairies.  Most of them are just fireflies.”

Lena gave her a blank look.  “Fireflies?”

Iris and Diana both gave her a shocked lock.  “You know, lightning bugs? Don’t you have them in California?”

Lena shook her head.  “No, I always… thought they were a made-up thing from children’s books.  You actually catch them in jars?”

Iris grinned and shook her head at Lena, as if to simply say,  _ Poor city folk _ .  Diana stared intently at the air next to Lena’s head and then snatched something out of the air.  She lowered her hand to Lena’s eye level and opened her palm. Inside was a tiny bug, pacing around a little resentfully.  It’s butt end blinked once in a shade of fluorescent yellow-green, and then it unsheathed little black wings and flew away.  Lena covered her mouth in surprise and delight.

This thing with Kara had started as a little break from her real life, but by and by she was starting to wonder how real her real life was.  

  
  
  


***

 

The moon was out.  Over the horizon, they were starting to see little sparkling blossoms of fireworks being set off in places near enough to see them, but far enough not to hear their loud reports.  Barry and Cisco fired up their lasers and Alex cued up their playlist on the stereo system – “Born in the USA,” “Coming to America,” “Living in America,” and a bunch of patriotic country songs that Lena didn’t recognize and was annoyed hadn’t come up in her endless hours of country music research on YouTube (because dammit, Lena Luthor was dating a country girl and was not about to be caught not knowing her country music).  And they spent the next half hour dazzling the assembled guests with an array of red, white and blue lasers that fanned and coalesced and criss-crossed and danced while everyone waved sparklers and got on to the serious business of trying to drain the seemingly bottomless kegs supplied by the Amazon Brewing Company. Kara hugged her from behind and kissed the back of her neck and Lena was filled with a contentment so strong she was afraid to say it out loud.

“So, you’re gonna come on down to the crick, right?”

“The crick?”

“Uh-huh.  Shelby Crick runs through the property on the other side of the orchard.”

_ Oh.  Creek. _  Lena realized.  “What’s happening there?”

“Well, round about now, we all get butt naked and go skinny dippin’.”

Lena turned around.  Kara was grinning. “You’re not serious.”

“Serious as a heart attack.  It ain’t weird. I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t wanna but it’s awfully fun.”

Cat came cruising by with a telltale red cup in hand.  “Wait…  _ this crowd _ …”  She paused, gesturing around for effect.  “...gets naked?”

Kara nodded.  “Yep.”

Cat sipped her drink.  “I may yet have to rethink this whole atheism thing.”  She glanced around. “Seen Lucy?”

Kara shook her head.  “Naw, but it ain’t unusual for her to leave early.  She’s a real early riser.”

Cat pursed her lips.  “Hmm. Well, alright. I’m ready when you are.”  She paused again, thought for a moment and then added.  “Or is it ‘y’all are’? I don’t quite have a handle on the grammar of that.”

“It’s y’all if you’re talking to multiple people.  If you’re referring to all of us here as a group then yeah, you’d say y’all.”

“Y’all.  Right.” Cat took a long sip from her cup.  “Well let me know when…  _ y’all _ … are planning on getting naked.”  She strolled away.

Lena sighed.  Dammit. Lena already knew Sara wouldn’t need to be asked twice.  If Cat was doing it too, Lena wasn’t about to look like the only prude from the city who wasn’t going to do it.

Kara chuckled.  “Peer pressure’s a bitch ain’t it.”

  
  


**

 

The moon was big and full, and the moonlight traced the silver line of the creek all through the landscape to where it disappeared in a bank of peach trees.  Lena stood at the top of a low, sloping hill and watched as some two dozen people ditched their clothes and made for the water. It was hard not to be impressed with Diana’s cohort; Lena didn’t know where they grew those women but they were like a bunch of Greek statues and looked perfectly natural jogging down to the waterline completely nude.  And she couldn’t help laughing at Barry’s pasty little white butt as he yelled, “yeeeehawwww!!!” and jumped into the water. 

“You ready?”

Lena paused.  Cat came sashaying down from behind them.  Lena realized at this moment that somehow, in all this time, she hadn’t seen Cat entirely naked.  Lena had to admit, she was a little impressed.  She was legitimately in great shape but there was also the simple truth that confidence was very sexy.  Cat strutted toward the water, pausing to turn back and throw a little shade at Lena:  “Chop chop, Luthor. You’re still wearing clothes.”

Lena swore under her breath, Kara laughed, and the two of them stripped off the little they wore and headed for the water.  

It wasn’t too chilly, just a few degrees cooler than the air.  The sky was midnight blue and full of stars, and Lena floated on her back for a minute to take it all in before standing up again.  Several yards away, Diana and her friends were laughing and having a water fight. Two of them were wrestling in the mud by the bank.  Cat was ringed with a few men and women –Barry, Iris, James, and Lena couldn’t see who else– who were hanging on whatever she was saying.  She caught sight of Alex and Sara floating a little bit apart from everyone, having a little talk. Whatever they were saying, Alex seemed to be receiving it well.  Lena couldn’t deny Sara Lance had a gift for helping a girl get a fresh perspective on things sometimes.

Kara swam up behind her and grabbed her around the waist.  “See?” she whispered in Lena’s ear. “It’s nice, ain’t it?”

“Yeah.”  She leaned back.  “I like it here.”

A howl erupted from somewhere off in the distance.  Lena looked around. “What was that?”

“Werewolves,” Barry hollered, laughing.

Kara snorted.  “You tryin’ to scare the city folk, Flash Allen?  Ain’t no wolves in Georgia.”

Barry was cracking himself up.  “Yeah, true, true, it’s just coyotes.”

Lena shook her head.  She turned around in Kara’s arms and gazed at her.  “I like your weird friends,” she whispered.

Kara looked happier than Lena had seen her yet.  “They like you too.”

They stood in the moonlight for a minute, waist deep in the water, and Lena just let herself melt against Kara’s warm, strong body while they kissed.  She pulled back, hearing what sounded like a bunch of animal footsteps coming out of the trees where the creek took a bend. She peered around Kara’s shoulder.  It was dark and hard to tell, but it looked like a bunch of… really big dogs? There were about half a dozen, and they bounded down to the water near where Alex and Sara stood, jumped in with a splash and went swimming across.

“Thought you said no wolves,” Lena murmured.

“Aw, those are just the girls’ hunting hounds.”  One of the big, furry creatures stopped halfway across and nuzzled Alex’s arm.  Alex smiled, scratched it behind the ears, and then it resumed following the others.  “See? Alex knows that one. She’s a good girl.”

The hound paused for a moment after it reached the other bank, surveying the group.  Lena could have sworn it spent an extra moment staring at Cat (who wouldn’t, after all), and then it loped off into the fields after its companions.

“You good with all this?” Kara whispered.

“Better than good,” Lena whispered back.  “It’s different, but… I’m glad. I like it.  And I  _ really _ like you.”

Kara kissed her again.  “I really like you too.”  

Lena held her close for a little while after that, listening to the crickets and the distant baying of the hounds and the laughter coming from up and down the waterline.  

It was going to be hard to go home.


	11. Chapter 11

Kara had felt a little uneasy about going off to National City for an entire weekend and leaving Alex to deal with Astra on her own, but she swore she’d come flying back if there was the slightest bit of trouble.  Alex and Astra both separately waved her off, swearing they’d be fine, and that she ought to go have fun at the science conference. Kara knew Alex would have liked to go, too, but this was as much about seeing Lena as it was about going to the U.N. Agricultural Summit, and love trumped all at the Danvers ranch.

Barry and Iris were going along, too, so it was going to be fun.  Barry could finally find himself in a room full of people who wanted to hear about the soil pH.  Iris could write something for the paper. And they’d get to mix with Lena’s crazy friends again.  

“I guess Alex and Astra will be alright,” Kara sighed to Barry, draining her glass of chocolate milk.  

“Alright?” Iris called from the bathroom.  “If you don’t get back and find them banging, about to bang, or having already done the deed, I’ll be shocked.”

“Ewwww!” was the only response Kara could muster.  “Anyway they can’t stand each other.”

“Yeah,” Barry giggled, “but it’s like that Sam and Diane kind of ‘can’t stand each other’... you know… because….”

“Yeah, I know!” Kara cut him off.  “Good Lord, Iris, are you sewing pockets into that outfit?”

The door banged open.  “Some of us don’t have super-speed,” she retorted, and marched out into the kitchen and did a little turn.  “Well?”

Barry gave a little whistle.  “Baby, you  _ do _ have a superpower… super-hotness.”

Iris rolled her eyes.  She had her hair pinned up securely, and was wearing a very tight ensemble of black pvc mesh, designed to withstand high velocities and radical pressure and temperature changes and keep Iris West’s body in one piece on their cross-country flight.  It was DEO issue –– Alex had one, too –– for when breakable humans had to run around with aliens who were somewhat less breakable. After a bit of wheedling, Kara had gotten Alex to requisition an “extra” one. It was now Iris’s.

Kara was wearing a similar outfit, although for her, it was really about the simple fact of not wanting to have her clothes get shredded in high winds and cold temperatures.  Barry had a similar one, too, made by his friend Cisco at the lab. His was, of course, bright red. Barry didn’t seem to understand the concept of subtlety. He strapped a very large camping backpack to himself and tightened the straps.  

“You sure that’s gonna stay?” Kara demanded.  “I mean, that’s all our clothes.”

“Don’t you worry, I got it.”

Kara nodded, and they walked outside together.  They stood on the porch, for a moment, gazing around the farm that was going to be hundreds of miles behind them in a few minutes.  “Ready?”

“Yep,” Barry answered.

“Iris?  Front or back?”

Iris thought.  “Back.” She popped on the shiny black pressure-helmet that went with the suit.  

“You look like Daft Punk, baby,” Barry chuckled.  

Iris waved dismissively, walked up onto the step behind Kara, and jumped onto her back, clinging there like a little monkey.  

“Ready, Barry?”

“Yep.  Race you?”

“C’mon.  I ain’t gonna be sloppy, I’m carrying your wife.”

“You ain’t any fun,” Barry pouted.  And then he disappeared in a rush of wind and a streak of red light disappearing into the distance.

“Whup his ass!”  Iris hollered.

Kara shot up into the sky.  Iris hung on tight.

  
  


***

  
  


They arrived at Lena’s about an hour later, including a stop in the theater district to change out of their pressure suits.  Kara figured that was the one part of town they definitely wouldn’t get any funny looks. Lena received them at her larger place in Escalando District, a sprawling penthouse with four bedrooms and views of the water.  Barry and Iris didn’t bother to hide their jaws dropping. Barry immediately laid eyes on the kitchen and needed to know what every single gadget in it did. He was particularly excited by the refrigerator that kept track of what you had, what you needed and told you when you were getting low on whatever fake milk alternative you liked to drink.

“You are almost out of eggs,” the refrigerator announced when Barry pressed the little button on the front.

Barry did a little dance of glee.

Lena had invited them to stay there, since it was so much more home than she needed.  They were politely trying to decline, because they honestly didn’t want to listen to her and Kara have sex, but every time Barry found a new toy or Iris noticed another piece of art on the wall that impressed her, it was getting harder for them to make an excuse to go back to the hotel.

They scampered away to check out the rather large terrace.

Kara drew Lena close and kissed her.  “So. What’s on tap for tonight?”

Lena gave her an innocent smile.  “Oh, you mean you’re not going to prep for the conference tomorrow?”

“Nope,” Kara answered with a grin.  “And neither are you.”

Lena nodded.  “OK. Well, Cat mentioned an art opening tonight by the piers, and Iris does seem pretty interested in art… You game?”

“Hell yeah.”

“Kara!”  Barry’s voice drifted in from the terrace.  “There’s a hot tub out here!”

And then a moment later, Iris’s voice:

“Barry, keep your damn pants on, we’re in the city!”

  
  


**

  
  


The Pier House was the jewel of the Shipping District, which as far as Kara could tell, didn’t do much shipping these days.  The whole neighborhood was old brick warehouses that had been converted into fashionable loft apartments and the sidewalks were teeming with people who looked like artists and models, spilling out of restaurants that looked like they’d been ironically transplanted from a Quentin Tarantino movie.  

Barry and Iris were beside themselves the entire limo ride down, and they walked through the neighborhood constantly nudging each other and quietly having fits between themselves over this and that.  Kara was amused by their enthusiasm. Atlanta was a legit city, of course, and Iris spent plenty of time in Macon, which was a bigger town, but this was a different thing altogether. 

Cat and Sara met them out front at the Pier House, a huge converted warehouse that sat on the edge of the water.  Cat was wearing a crisp white summer suit and her hair had that perfect, windblown “just been to the beach” look. Sara was wearing tight calf-length pants and a lightweight satin jacket, with her hair done up tight and a little chiffon scarf.  Kara greeted her with a grin. “You look like Rizzo from Grease.”

Sara nodded.

“Lemme guess,” Lena hazarded, “you just got back from 1955?”

“Fifty nine,” Sara corrected, “but good guess.”

“I’m always just a little off,” Lena remarked.

She and Cat hugged.  Cat looked at Kara, and then at Barry and Iris.  “It’s official,” she announced. “There is a god, she is good, and she loves me.”  She hugged Kara, who picked her up off the sidewalk for a moment and then set her back down.  Cat glanced at Lena, who was laughing. “Lucky bitch,” she whispered under her breath. 

Lena grinned at her.  “Yep.” 

Cat was effusive with greeting Barry and Iris, and in a moment, she was whisking them all inside.

“So whose opening is this anyway?” Kara asked as they followed Cat.

“Oh, some overrated wunderkind sculptor,” she answered breezily, “but you know we have to be seen at things like this.”

Some of the pieces were wall-mounted, and some were free standing.  They were all lit impeccably. They were mostly made a hard plastic of some kind, some clear and some brightly colored, all very abstract.  As they stood in front of a particularly loud piece, Kara’s internal censors decided to go for a stroll over to the refreshment table, and the first thing that came into her mind came dropping out of her mouth:  “It’s like someone took a bunch of kids toys and dropped ‘em in a fireplace.”

Lena giggled a little.  Cat looked amused. They noticed a few eyerolls from nearby art snobs but ignored them.  Barry stepped a little closer. “They want three hundred thousand for this one!” he exclaimed.  “Baby, what say you get your daddy to mortgage the house… and the neighbor’s house… so we can bring this one home!”

“Yeah,” Iris deadpanned, “it’s just what the porch has been missing all this time.”

They caught a few more derisive looks from wine-drinking urbanites wearing too much black.  Lena seemed to recognize one of them, a tall guy with a little too much stubble and a button-down shirt undone at the top.  

“Oh god,” she muttered.  “This asshole.” She propped a clearly fake smile onto her face.  “Hello, Maxwell, fancy meeting you here.”

Kara got smarmy vibes off of him immediately.  He smiled and for some reason she wanted to punch him.  “Lena, good to see you. Cat, radiant as ever.”

Cat rolled her eyes at him.  

He had clearly been listening to their commentary and was anxious to condescend.  “You know,” he informed them with the same punchable smile, “this is actually pretty hard to do.  Peter –that’s the artist– he’s a friend of mine, and the process that goes into making these is pretty labor intensive.”

“Oh,” Barry responded pleasantly, “I’m sure.  I mean, these look like glass polymers, I figure you gotta heat ‘em well above a couple hundred degrees to be able to mold ‘em in these shapes but of course you can’t go over what, five hundred, because then you just get a big gaseous cloud, and it’s probably pretty delicate too since you don’t want ‘em to go crystallizing on you ‘cause it’ll totally change the effect, am I right?”

“Now Barry,” Kara cut in, emphasizing her drawl, “I’m sure this fella is plenty smart and knows how plastics work.”  They knew when they were being condescended to.

Maxwell smiled a little uncomfortably and shifted tactics. “Of course.  But I meant not just the craftsmanship, but the concepts themselves. Development of these ideas takes time as well.”

“Well of course,” Iris chimed in sweetly.  “I mean, Frank Stella was doin’ stuff that looked like this in the eighties but hell, we all stand on the shoulders of giants, ain’t that right, Maximillian?”

“It’s, uh, Maxwell.”

Kara could tell that Iris had further endeared herself to Cat.  

“Hell, Maximillian,” Kara jumped in, “this piece here is like a 3D Keith Haring.  I’m sure your boy’s doing real well for himself, bless his heart, but he sure wears his influences right on his sleeve, don’t he?”

Maxwell glanced between the three of them, and then at Cat and Lena.  (Sara was nowhere to be found because she was across the room, hitting on a scowling art student hovering near the open bar.)  “Where’d you three say you’re from again?”

“Tiny little town in Georgia nobody’s ever heard of,” Barry answered cheerfully.

“Iris works in Macon sometimes, though,” Kara added.

“It’s true,” Iris confirmed.  “Sometimes even Atlanta.”

Maxwell nodded politely and excused himself before these adorable, polite Southerners dismembered him with their teeth.  Cat was looking like she wanted to sink her own teeth into the lot of them in an entirely different way, but then, Kara figured Cat looked like that a lot.

After availing themselves of the open bar, they head out into the National City night, studded with so many tiny lights that when you squinted, it was hard to tell where the city ended and the sky began.  Sara was leaving with the art student, who no longer looked quite as surly as before. 

“Where are you going?” Cat demanded.

“I’m gonna show her my time machine!” Sara called over her shoulder, and then her arm slipped around the girl’s waist, and they were off to wherever they were off to.

Cat hmphed.  “And then there were five.”  She glanced around at them.

Lena linked her arm through Kara’s.  Kara took a moment to appreciate the way she looked with her hair up and the little wisps tugging free in the breezes off the water.  “We could go back to my place,” she suggested, “and do the hot tub? I think I’ve got some champagne in the cooler.”

“Aw, right!” Barry remembered. “You’ve got a rooftop hot tub!”

“Yes,” Cat agreed.  “But mine’s bigger.”

  
  


***

  
  


Kara felt warm and woozy, watching the steam rising up off the water, and off of everyone’s skin.  The contrast against the cool of the evening was perfect. Lena was lounging next to her on her left, Barry and Iris sat together across from them, and Cat was to her right.  Cat had enough big, thick white guest robes like the kind you get at fancy hotels, and they’d all sauntered out and then slid into the water. After a few glasses of champagne, the world seemed right.  It was almost too much for Kara’s senses, all this input. Almost. But not quite. She had her earplugs in and was able to shut out the traffic and some of the other stray noises, and focus on her girlfriend, her friends, the warm water, and the cool air. 

Lena was dozing on her shoulder.  Barry and Iris were having a quiet conversation between themselves, and Kara knew she could have heard what it was about if she chose to, but she let it get lost in the bubbling of the water.  Cat leaned forward and looked at Lena, and then leaned back and stretched her arms back, and then clasped her hands behind her head.

“So, I’m told my shovel talks are terrifying,” she began casually, leaning out of the water to grab her half-sipped glass of champagne and sharing a spectacular view of her bare, steaming cleavage with anyone who happened to be looking.

Kara chuckled.  “Well, I’d like to say this is the first time I’ve been threatened by a naked woman but it probably isn’t.”

Cat gave a little “hmph.”  “Well, this isn’t a threat.  That being said, Lena’s my friend, and you should know that I can’t remember the last time I saw her like this.”   


“Like what?”

Cat smirked a little.  “Happy.”

Kara blushed a little.

Cat gazed at her for a long moment, until the steadiness of it almost became uncomfortable.  “She’s a good soul, farm girl.”

Kara nodded.

Another long, uncomfortable pause.  “Don’t blow it.”

Kara smiled sheepishly.  She was really trying not to.  

“Alright, that’s all.  Close your mouth before something flies in.”

Cat slid over to Barry and Iris.

Lena stirred and kissed the curve of Kara’s neck.  “Did Cat give you a shovel talk?”

Kara chuckled.  “Sort of. Not exactly.  She said you’re happy, though.  With me.”

Lena sighed and gave a little yawn.  “I am.”

Kara sighed.  “Me too.” She stopped for a moment, gazing up at the twinkling skyline around them.  “Sometimes it’s funny to think, if you had turned into some other driveway, or if you hadn’t run out of gas, we wouldn’t be here right now.  Just feels like we were put in front of each other, like… well I guess not God, but you know. Fate. The universe. We shouldn’t fit in each other’s worlds, but we do.”

“Yeah,” Lena agreed.  She yawned. “You know, baby, we should go, it’s getting late.”

Kara yawned too.  It was contagious.  “You’re right.” She kissed Lena’s damp temple where the little dark hairs curled just a bit, then looked up.  Cat was sitting next to Iris and using that very soft voice that Kara had heard here and there, and though she promised herself that she wasn’t going to invade, she heard her muttering, “...Of course, you can always just stay here…”

Kara and Lena climbed out of the hot tub and slipped into their robes.  “C’mon guys,” Kara called to them, “we’d best head out. It’s pretty late.”

“Well…”  Barry hesitated a moment.  “We might stay. Don’t wanna cramp y'all's style.”

Lena and Kara exchanged a little disbelieving look.  “I can give you guys keys to my other place, it’s actually right around the corner,” Lena offered.

“Nah,” Iris decided after a moment of glancing between Barry and Cat.  “We’re good, but thanks. Cat offered us her guest room.”

Kara snorted.  “Well, don’t y’all stay up too late, we’re supposed to get to the conference before nine tomorrow.”

Iris lifted a fist halfway into the air.  “Yay, science?”

Barry punched her shoulder.  “Of course yay science!”

In the elevator on the way down, Lena asked, “Do you think they’re gonna…?”

Kara laughed.  “I don’t know. But I know we are."

Art.  Champagne.  Hot tubs. Sex.  Kara was thinking she could get used to spending more time in a place like this.


	12. Chapter 12

After an evening of delicious lovemaking, Kara and Lena woke up early, showered, and got dressed.  Lena was expecting Kara would probably dress a little more than the jeans and loose button-down she’d worn last night, but she wasn’t fully prepared for the entire spectacle of Kara Danvers in a grey tweed suit vest and trousers with a blue necktie and watch chain.  Particularly when you added in the thick-rimmed glasses. She was like a nerd goddess. She was like… Lena heard Cat’s voice in her head. “Blonde Rachel Maddow.”

Kara chuckled.  “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“It is,” Lena purred, and they kissed for several minutes before heading out.

They arrived at the Barlow Center at eight thirty a.m., and went up to the desk to check in.  Lena gave her name to one of the ladies behind the desk. 

“Ah, here you are, Miss Luthor.”  She handed Lena a badge and a folder with some papers including the agenda for the two-day conference.

Kara leaned forward on the desk.  “Kara Danvers?”

The woman tapped around on her computer for a moment, frowning.  Then she seemed to find what she was looking for. “Ah, here you are.”  She handed a badge and folder across to Kara. “Enjoy the conference, Dr. Danvers.”

Lena’s eyebrows shot up.  “ _ Doctor _ Danvers?”

Kara grinned.  “Yeah. ‘Course.”

“What is your PhD in?” Lena demanded. 

“Molecular and Environmental Plant Sciences,” Kara said casually as they walked across the lobby toward the main auditorium.

“How,” Lena demanded, “did you manage to date me for this long and just leave out that you had a PhD?”  She was annoyed, but she had to admit, she was also a little turned on.

Kara shrugged.  “Why? Is it a big deal?”

“Yes!  Christ, yes, it’s a big deal.”

“Doesn’t everybody have one?”

Lena snorted.  “No! Everybody doesn’t!  I don’t!”

Kara seemed surprised.  “But you’re a genius, it doesn’t matter!”

Lena stopped walking and folded her arms.  “Is that really the point? And what do you mean, doesn’t everybody?”

Kara laughed.  “Well, my mama, my daddy, my sister, Diana, Lucy, ‘course Barry has to ‘cause he works at the lab, and…”

“Don’t tell me Iris has one too?”

Those beautiful eyes crinkled in a smile and Kara grinned and said, “Well, peer pressure’s a bitch.”  

Lena shook her head in amazement.  She’d already thought Kara was extraordinary.  

“C’mon.  The very first day we met I told you I was engineering my own strains of wheat.  Did you think I was doin’ that with a food processor and a high school textbook?”  

Lena laughed.  “I guess not. You and your friends are just so unassuming.  Most people with PhDs  _ really _ want to make sure you know they’ve got them.”

Kara glanced around.  “Now where the heck are…”

She trailed off.  Lena followed Kara’s gaze to where Cat was entering the room, arm over the shoulder of her son Carter, a handsome boy of twelve who Lena knew fairly well.  Cat and Iris were chatting away while Barry and Carter seemed to be heavily engaged in who knew what. Kara and Lena made their way over. Lena couldn’t help noticing that Barry and Iris both were wearing different, more professional attire than they were last night and she knew for a fact that they hadn’t been back to her place to retrieve their clothes.  Cat was sure laying it on thick, she thought with a strange admiration.

“Dr. Allen, Dr. West,” Lena greeted them.

Barry laughed.  “Aw, she finally fessed up, huh?”

Kara grabbed Iris and Barry.  “Let me get you guys signed in!” she exclaimed, and whisked them over to the desk.  

Lena greeted Carter and hugged Cat briefly.  She leaned in. “So?”

Cat looked at her blankly.  “So what?”

“So, Barry and Iris…?”  

Cat rolled her eyes.  “Oh whatever are you on about, Lena?  They stayed over. That’s why we arrived together.”

Lena felt a little funny pursuing the subject any further in front of Carter.  “Oh, is that all?” She tried to be breezy.

Cat glared –glared?– at her.  “Yes, that’s all. Mind your damn business, Luthor.  If I have something to tell you, I’ll tell you.” She glanced at Lena’s badge.  “Come on, Carter, let’s get our badges.”

Lena was utterly baffled.  It was frankly unlike Cat to be circumspect about her conquests.  If she got laid, she was sure to tell you all about it. And if she didn’t, she was almost guaranteed to be grumbling about it or plotting how to make sure it happened next time.  

Lena reconnected with the group and leaned in to mutter in Kara’s ear.  “Did they tell you anything?”

Kara shrugged.  “Not a damn thing.  Wouldn’t give me a straight yes or no on anything.  Iris just kept sayin’ Cat was a perfect gentleman.”

Lena was stymied.  Ah well. She glanced at the schedule.  The first event was going to be a roundtable on sustainable farming, and Kara had a spot on the panel.  They stood discussing where they’d meet when it was done, when an elderly Chinese woman came over and, glancing at Kara’s badge, addressed her.  “Dr. Danvers. You are on the panel, yes?”

Kara nodded, smiling pleasantly, and then glanced at her badge.  Apparently she was some sort of undersecretary of agriculture from China.   _ “Shì de, wǒ rènwéi wǒmen zài lìng yībiān shǐyòng zhèxiē mén.” _

The woman looked as surprised as Lena felt.  She responded politely, but was clearly not expecting Kara to keep up.  As far as Lena could tell, she corrected Kara once or twice, but the back and forth was very friendly.  “Sorry about my Chinese,” Kara apologized as the woman was walking away, “I’m still working on it!”

“Not bad for a  _ gweilo _ , Doctor Danvers!”  the woman called over her shoulder, smiling.

Lena gaped at Kara.  Kara looked back at her.  “What?” she demanded.

“Anything else you want to tell me?” Lena responded.  “Are you a certified pastry chef? A master glass sculptor?”

Kara just laughed, kissed her on the cheek and said, “I’ve gotta go, but I’ll look out for you from the stage.”

Still shaking her head, Lena sat in the audience with Cat, Carter, Barry and Iris.  While they were waiting for it to start, Lena could hear Barry talking to Carter: “...now the thing is, I can’t find any explanation for it, and that’s what’s bothering me.  In fact, the way the dam is constructed, it oughta be neutralizing any acidity in the soil.”

And Carter, seeming sincerely interested, asked, “But there aren’t too many things that could make the soil that acidic, are there?”

Barry seemed very excited.  “Right! So, now I’ve been worrying about the integrity of that dam because there’s limestone in the foundation, and…”

Lena smiled.  Someone seemed honestly interested in Barry’s chattering about the soil pH.  Good for him. 

She watched the discussion open up.  The moderator did the introduction to the subject of the panel in English and French.  Many people around the room were wearing translation earpieces. Then she went around and invited each of the panelists to address the audience and introduce themselves.

There were two British scientists, the Chinese agricultural undersecretary they’d just met, and a couple of Americans.  Kara’s turn came, and she pushed her glasses up her nose, gave a charming little smile, winked at Lena, and spoke. 

“I’m Dr. Kara Danvers, PhD from University of Georgia, and while I’m looking forward to discussing sustainability and some of the innovations we’ve been able to put in place on my own family’s farm, I’m also looking forward to discussing right to repair and modify, and why companies like John Deere and Monsanto need to partner with family farms rather than prosecute and squeeze ‘em dry.  Innovation at an individual level is as important to sustainability in agriculture as governmental regulations.” She glanced around the room. “I know some of you fellas are in the room today, so maybe we can get a beer after class and talk about it.”

A little chuckle rippled through the room.

Then, Kara gave the same spiel, but in French.

Lena was pretty sure her heart stopped.  She had the panicked thought that maybe she’d better put a ring on that woman before one of these scientist ladies stole her away.  She didn’t like the way that French botanist was drooling at her, she decided.

Cat glanced over at her, barely containing her snickering.  Lena punched her arm and silently mouthed, “Shut the fuck up.”

Kara was a surprisingly excellent speaker, although, Lena realized, someone who had get through a doctoral defense was bound to at least be pretty good.  She seemed to excel in this conversational format, cracking occasional low-key jokes and responding to the other panelists with polite but intelligent questions.  She seemed to know more than Lena did about the challenges of rice farming in China (decline in arable land, scarcity of water, labor shortages and increased consumer demand).  The Chinese ag secretary was duly impressed and said so before responding to one of Kara’s comments. 

“Not bad for a  _ gweilo _ , eh?” Kara remarked, and winked.  The Chinese ag secretary chuckled a little.

She talked about the water collection system on her family’s farm and how it went through a piping system in the family’s greenhouse, to manage the temperature even during the very short cold season in Georgia, and about innovations that she and her family had made in the collection and recycling of manure into compost, some of which got sold or donated to local community gardening therapy programs.  She talked about the mods she “hypothetically could make” to her own tractor to optimize its performance particular to the needs of her land, and how it might be to Monsanto’s benefit to loosen copyright restrictions on their seed so that a savvy farmer could “hypothetically” be free to develop variants that might fare better in their particular local climate and soil, contributing to healthier farming overall.  She talked about how healthier farming decreased water and oxygen demands and contributed to an overall approach to sustainability.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

By the time she was done, several people in the room wanted to shake her hand and Lena was about ready to drag her home and tear her clothes off.  “That’s a big, sexy brain you’ve got there, Dr. Danvers.”

Kara grinned.  “I hope you still think so tonight.  ‘Cause it’s full of ideas. And they’re not about the soil.”

Lena laughed.  “Listen, if I didn’t have to stick around for my brother’s presentation…”

“He’s here?”  Kara seemed excited.  “I get to meet your brother?”

Lena smiled and shook her head.  “That’s...not usually the reaction people have about meeting Lex Luthor.”

Kara shrugged.  “He’s a genius like you.  And he’s your brother and you love him.  So of course I want to meet him.”

Lena glanced up as they walked out into the lobby area to find some refreshments, and she saw Lex, wearing some oddball suit that looked like it was from the 1920s and a… was it a bowler hat?   _ Jesus,  _ she thought.   _ What even are his tastes?   _  “Alexander Luthor,” she called out to him, striding across the lobby.  Kara jogged easily next to her. “What on earth are you wearing?”

“My pen pal says I should be living my best life.  My best life includes vintage suits and bowler hats.”  He looked at Kara. “Who’s this?” Lena could read the suspicion on his face.

“You missed the roundtable, I guess,” Lena answered.  “But this is my, uh, my girlfriend, Kara, actually.”

“The one you were brooding about a few weeks ago because you didn’t know if she liked you?”

Lena flushed.  Lex had no internal filter, damn him.  Kara was just chuckling. “Yes, her.”

He looked at Kara.  “So do you?”

Kara nodded.  “Very much so.”

He made a little sound of acknowledgement.  “Well, good.”

“Miss Lena!”  came an enthusiastic greeting from behind her brother.

Lena looked over Lex’s shoulder and saw, strutting toward her in a very respectable grey suit, Lex’s butler.  “Honestly Lexy,” she muttered to him, “you brought your butler to this?”

“He’s speaking with me,” Lex answered tersely.  

“What?”

Manuel grinned.  “Yes, it’s true. We co-authored his paper on the next wave in energy storage for wind farming.”

Lena’s head spun for what had to be the fifth time today.  “You did?”

Manuel nodded.  “Oh yeah. I’m a grad student.  I’m just butlering because my stipend isn’t nearly enough, and honestly, Lex gives me access to all kinds of research I wouldn’t get at UC.”

Lena shook her head.  “How the hell did I not know this?  For crying out loud, Lex, you call him Jeeves!”

“Only when he’s butlering.”

Kara laughed.  “Sorry, baby, you’re having a rough day, aren’t you?”

Lena put her hands on her hips and glared around at all of them.  She wasn’t quite sure why she was annoyed, but she was. But somehow, her world has also gotten richer.  A few people came over to compliment Kara on her contributions to the panel, including the French botanist, who was a little effusive about the quality of Kara’s French.  Lena, smirking, turned to Kara and told her,  _ “Toute cette attention, comment vais-je passer la tête par la porte quand nous rentrons à la maison?”  All this attention, how am I going to fit your head through the door when we get home? _

Kara hooted.   _ “Fais attention à ce français, cherie, je peux t'embrasser ici!”   Be careful with that French, baby, I might kiss you right here. _

Lex and Manuel’s presentation went well.  Lex allowed Manuel to do the majority of the main presentation, but was quick and knowledgeable on the follow-up questions.  They actually worked well together. Lena was pleased to see him have a natural chemistry with someone. Kara and Lena stood chatting with them afterwards.  

“It’s nice to see you living a little,” Lena said to Lex.

Lex shrugged.  “I’m not afraid of death anymore,” he said flatly.

Lena gave him that bemused look she often did.  “Oh, no?”

“No.  As Mary Roach said, I don't fear death so much as I fear its prologues: loneliness, decrepitude, pain, debilitation, depression, senility. After a few years of those, I imagine death presents like a holiday at the beach.”

“Well, that’s upbeat,” Lena chuckled.

But Kara was staring at him.  “Wait…”

Lex looked diffidently at her.  “What? You know that quote?”

“Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better,”  she said. Clearly, Lena could tell, she was reciting something.

Lex squinted at her and tilted his head.  “Henry Rollins....” 

Lena was lost.  Lex and Kara might as well have lapsed into Chinese.  

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Kara exclaimed breathlessly.

“What are the odds?” Lex mused.

Lena cleared her throat.  “Would one of you like to tell me what the hell is going on?”

“I uh…”  Kara cleared her throat.  “...well, I sometimes volunteer with a program where I pen pal with a prisoner and, uh… apparently your brother was my prisoner.”  She scratched the bridge of her nose. “Gosh, it sounds odd when I put it like that.”

Lex smiled cryptically, continuing to squint at Kara.  “You look pretty much like what I thought you’d look like.”

She gazed back at him, rubbing the back of her neck.  “Well … I didn’t peg the bowler hat or the vintage suit but I sure got the pasty thing.”

“Thanks,” he said, not bitterly.

Lena shook her head.  “I think I’m going to faint.”

  
  


***

  
  


The day wore on.  Lena gave her talk on GMOs, which was received well.  Maxwell turned up to give a glitzy TED-style talk with a lot of swooshy graphics on the large screens behind him.  Kara, Barry and Iris peppered him with questions until he looked like he wanted to throw something at them. By late in the day, Lena noticed that Kara was needing to sit further in the backs of rooms and eventually, she just parked herself out in the lobby.  Even the prospect of getting slap Max around wasn’t doing it for her.

“You okay?” Lena asked, rubbing her shoulder.

Kara nodded.  “Yeah… I think I’ve just… had enough.”  She looked tired and a little twitchy.

Lena was actually surprised that it hadn’t happened sooner, with such a crowd in such a compressed space, and the lights, and the chatter… She noticed that Kara had her earplugs in, which meant even with that, she was starting to get a little overloaded.  She squeezed Kara’s shoulders super-hard, the way she knew Kara liked, and leaned down and murmured, “I think Cat will be more than glad to wrangle Barry and Iris. Why don’t we get you home and pile you under a fuckload of pillows and I lay on you for a while and then order you some Chinese?”

Kara sighed happily.  “Darlin’, that is music to my ears.”

They went to sleep early that night and skipped the second day of the conference altogether in favor of staying in for a lazy morning of coffee, croissants and slow, easy lovemaking in several different locations in the penthouse.  It seemed to wipe away all of the remnants of Kara’s exhaustion from the day before, as well as any lingering salty feelings on Lena’s part that she had been blindsided by so many things that day. Barry and Iris turned up around lunchtime to retrieve Kara, and as usual, declined Lena’s offer to accompany them to the airport.  They said their goodbyes and promised that they’d see each other in a few weeks, when Lena would come out their way again.

Kara had fit in Lena’s world, but it had been work.  More work, she thought a little guiltily, than it should have been.  Lena looked forward to being away from the city again, and seeing her back in her element.  

_ “A bientôt,” _ Lena whispered as they kissed goodbye.   _ See you soon. _

“Pas assez tôt.”   _ Not soon enough. _

Lena watched her leave and wondered what more there was to discover.


	13. Chapter 13

Kara arrived at the Danvers farm feeling a little wrung out.  The flight back helped clear her head but even with that, the weekend in the city had been a lot for her senses, particularly because everything they did involved crowded public places.  She would be glad to spend a few days in the farm’s relative quiet, decompressing.

She trudged up the front steps of her house and clomped through the front door.  The living room was dark when she walked in, the only light seeping in from the kitchen.  The second thing she noticed was that the coffee table was smashed in half in front of the couch.  The third thing she noticed was Astra on the couch in a ball, with Alex sitting behind her, arms wrapped tightly around her, scowling vaguely.

Alex looked up.  “This ain’t what it looks like,” she grumbled.

Kara looked at the tableau for a moment, and batted Iris’s teasing comments out of her mind.  “Well,” she said slowly, “it looks like Astra got a little overloaded, and smashed the coffee table up, so you shut the lights in here and now you’re giving her some deep pressure to help her calm down.”

Alex blinked for a moment.  “Oh. Well then, it... is what it looks like.”  She cleared her throat, and then moved to extract herself from her predicament.  “Well, Astra, Kara’s back, so I’m gonna go ahead and leave you in her capable–”

“But your scent is integral to the calming effect,” Astra protested weakly.

Kara blinked twice.  Alex looked awkwardly at the back of Astra’s head.  “Fine,” she sighed heavily after a moment, “just a minute more, but then I gotta get ready for work tomorrow, okay?”  She looked up at Kara, grumpily settled back in behind Astra, and wrapped her arms around her again. “Vexes me something fierce,” she muttered.

Kara was too exhausted to dwell on its meaning.  She slumped off to bed.

  
  


***

  
  


National City was bigger and more crowded than Atlanta, and this weekend in particular, with all the very crowded enclosed spaces, had really worn her down, so it was probably going to take a few days for Kara to get herself completely right.  She woke up around midnight, rubbed her eyes, and decided she wanted to talk to Lena. She fished her phone from the pocket of her jeans, which were on the floor next to the bed, and called her up.

“Hi, baby,” came Lena’s concerned voice.  “Kinda late. You OK?”

“Mm, yeah,” Kara yawned.  “Just wanted to let you know I got in alright, hear your voice before I pass out.”

Lena laughed warmly.  “Okay, fine. Traveling is exhausting though, so I’m not going to stay on the phone with you till all hours.  You need your rest.”

“Mm-hmm.”

There was a little quiet while Kara struggled with consciousness and listened to Lena’s breathing.  Then Lena said, “Are you okay after this weekend? It seemed like it took a lot out of you.”

“Yeah, it sorta did. ‘Sok though. Spending time with you is worth a lot to me.”  Kara yawned again. 

“Seeing you comfortable and happy is worth a lot to me,” Lena rejoined, sounding a little concerned.

Kara yawned again.  Lena was concerned about her happiness.  That was nice, she thought. There was something else on her mind, though.  “Seems like you and Lex are pretty close.”

Lena sighed.  “Yeah, you know.  Not always. Lately we’ve been, though.”

“Well you must tell each other everything, just like me and Alex.”

“Pretty much.  Since he got out of jail, especially.  And boy have I heard a lot about you.”

Kara yawned.  Well, there it was.  She’d suspected Lex would probably bring up the whole alien thing once he figured out who she was.  He had chafed a bit in his emails about alien residents’ need for secrecy, and Kara had gently but firmly explained to him what aliens deal with on earth.  She had even hinted to him that she might be one herself, and he was smart enough that he had to have put it together. It now seemed pretty clear that Lex had discussed it with Lena, and clearly, with everything Lena had seen, of course she didn’t have trouble believing it.   “You know, baby,” she sighed, “I don’t know how you’re feelin’ about…” She grasped around for how to put it. “...all this, but I hope you’re not put off by the weirdness of it all. I mean, you know…” 

Lena snorted.  “What, you mean the fact that you’re from so far away?”

Kara cleared her throat.  That was a funny way to put “you’re an alien,” she thought.  “I guess you could say that.”

Lena made a little purring noise.  “Kara, I can live with it if you can.  So what if you’re not from around here?  I feel like this is working.”

“Yeah, I know… I do too…”  Kara grasped for words again, yawned, and then spoke.  “I just. I guess this is different from what you’re used to.  I just worry about you being spooked off. And you know, your brother…”  

“Oh, don’t worry about Lex,” Lena chuckled.  “He doesn’t get any say over what I do.”

“Yeah but… I mean… things he’s said in the past…”  

“You mean when you guys were corresponding?”

“Yeah.”  Lena always understands me, Kara thought happily.  

“I mean, he can be a little prejudiced in some ways, but … do you know often he says to me, ‘my pen pals says’ this or that?  He seems to think the world of you, even though you’re… well, you know... pretty different.”

Kara hummed thoughtfully and rubbed her eyes.  “And me being… different from y’all… that doesn’t bother you?”

“No, I love it!” Lena exclaimed.  “And you know... you're the same in all the ways where it counts.  I just wish you weren’t so far away, but I understand why Nat City isn’t your cup of tea and why your life on the farm works for you.”  

“You do?”

“Sure.  You need your quiet and your fresh air, and now more than ever, you need to be looking after your crazy aunt from outer space.”

Kara chuckled.  “You got that right.  If I ain’t careful, she’s gonna end up sleeping with my sister.”

Lena laughed.  “Oh god. That’s still going on?”

“Yeah, or not going on, as the case may be.  Part of me wishes they’d get it over with already, and part of me finds that disgustingly redneck.”  She laughed quietly. “And part of me worries Astra will straight up break Alex in half if she ain’t careful.”

Lena sighed, sounding amused.  “Well, from what I’ve seen, Alex can take care of herself.  And you know, I know you come from strong stock and all that, but you’ve never broken me yet.  Not to date, anyway. I’ve seen you lift bales of hay and whatnot.”

“Kegs.”

“Yes, kegs.  Whatever. The point is, I’m not afraid of any of this, I’m not weirded out, and I want you to know that.  Different is good. In fact, I’m good with spending more time out there if you want me to.”

Kara shifted in bed and pulled the sheet up to her chin.  “You know, that sounds real nice.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Lena promised.  “Now go to sleep, Dr. Danvers. Don’t make me tell you twice.”

Kara hummed into the phone.  “I like it when you flex your authority muscles.”

“Yeah, yeah.  I like it when you flex your muscle muscles.  Go to sleep, you.”

“Mmk.  Night, baby.”

Unconsciousness settled gently over Kara and she went back to sleep.

  
  


**

  
  


The next day, Kara did some work on the farm and showed Astra how to use the nav on the tractor.  Her mood was light as she contemplated how smoothly things had gone on the phone with Lena last night, how willing Lena had been to accept Kara as she was.  It was, she felt, a bit of a miracle. Not every girlfriend had even been told, and not all of the ones she told had handled it very well. 

Barry and Iris came over for dinner that evening, bearing a pitcher of Iris’s sweet tea.  “Where’s Alex?” Barry asked as they came in, exchanging usual greetings.

“Traveling next couple days,” Kara answered.  “They got her going all over the place this week.  As far as Marion County, I think.”

Barry whistled.  He peered out the window at Astra, who was wandering barefoot past the barn, out toward the orchard.  Her hands were thrust in the pockets of her jeans and her hair was tied up in a loose ponytail. She was meandering slowly, pausing to look up at the sunset now and then.  “Astra doing alright, there? Seems a little melancholy.”

Kara shrugged.  “Yeah, she’s not feeling real chatty just now, and you know.  There are a lot of things it could be. I guess she’ll talk about it when she feels like.”

They sat down to eat, and chattered back and forth over some of Kara’s chicken pot pie and Iris’s sweet tea.  

“Oh, guess what?” Barry exclaimed as she shoveled food into his mouth.  “You’re a meme!”

Kara was momentarily alarmed.  “What?”

“Just for nerds like us,” he added.  “I guess that smackdown you gave ol’ Maxwell during his talk got some traction.  Ellen sent me a good one.”

Kara was having trouble wrapping her brain around it.  “Ellen the librarian from the DEO?”

“Yep.”

“What?  What is it?”

“Well it’s a pic of you, and you got a real cute smile on and it says:  Cutest Smile While Eviscerating Someone 2018.”

Kara snorted.  

“What, it’s a compliment!” Barry exclaimed.

“I guess.”  Kara drank a little more, then asked, “So are y’all gonna tell me what happened with Cat Grant?”

Iris rolled her eyes.  “This again? I told you, Cat was a perfect gentleman.”

“So nothing happened.”

Iris shook her head and glanced at Barry, and then changed the subject.  “So, how did Lena feel about the whole weekend?”

“The weekend?  Well, you know, she had a good time.  She was feeling a little bad about how much the whole thing wore me out, but we squared it up.  And we had a real nice talk about the, uh… other thing.”

Barry whistled.  “Really? The alien thing, huh?  How’d she take it?”

“Great, surprisingly great, actually.”  Kara wiped some of the condensation off her glass.  “I mean, I asked her if she was alright with all that and she said yeah, she liked it actually.”

Iris seemed skeptical.  “Really? Even with who her brother is?”

Kara snorted.  “Look, he ain’t so bad.  He was my prison pen pal.  I put him straight on all that, so to speak.”

“Hm.”  Iris poured herself a little more to drink.  “So, you said to her, ‘So hey, I’m an alien, what do you think about that?’ and she said ‘hey, that’s great’?”

Kara frowned.  “Well, more or less, yeah.  I mean, she kind of brought it up, actually. I think it was Lex that told her, on account of me kinda maybe hinting at it in our correspondence, and after all the crazy stuff she saw last time she was here, it couldn’t have been too hard to believe.”

Barry munched thoughtfully for a moment and then asked, “Well, what’d she say that made you think she knew?”

Kara thought.  She wasn’t sure now, actually.  “I forget. She said something about Lex givin’ her an earful about me.  And she didn’t mind it that I’m different.”

Iris sighed, set down her fork and asked delicately, “Are you sure that she was talking about you being an alien?”

“Well she said something about my crazy aunt from outer space,” Kara offered.

“Okay,” Iris said.  “I just… I think you might want to really spell it out and make sure.”

Barry nodded.  He wiped his mouth on his sleeve.  Iris tossed a napkin at him. “Yeah, I think it’s a good idea to just say, ‘hey, I’m literally from another planet.’”  He dabbed at his mouth with the napkin. “I mean, assuming you want to.”

“She knows,” Kara said.  “We talked about it. I’m tellin’ you.  It’s fine.”

 


	14. Chapter 14

Dinner at Lex’s manse was a somewhat fussy event.  Their mother would likely be wearing pearls and Lena expected Lex would be wearing some other vintage getup.  Out of spite, she chose some yoga pants and a crew neck and even worse, sandals. Lex would say something, but not really care, and their mother would care, but not say anything, opting instead for some disapproving looks over the coq au vin.

And it  _ would _ be coq au vin.  It was Lillian’s favorite, and Lex was, after all, still a mama’s boy.

Manuel ushered her in, and Lillian was already in the parlor, sipping an aperitif.  “Good luck, Miss Lena,” Manuel whispered. He knew.

“Hello, Mother,” Lena said stiffly, and leaned down to give her a kiss on the cheek.

“Hello, Lena.”  Lillian sipped from her glass. Predictably, she gave Lena a displeased once-over, but said nothing.  “I was sorry to have missed your presentations this weekend. I was in Zurich, supervising an installation of some tech at the museum.”  

_ It wouldn’t be the first time you missed something of mine, _ Lena wanted to say, but she bit it back.  “Lexy did quite well.”

Lillian made a little sound and gestured around.  “Well, I’m glad he’s getting used to being back in the general population.  You know how it is, sometimes they’re never the same after they come out of prison.”

Lena rolled her eyes and went to the side table to pour herself a brandy.  “Please, Mother. Lexy was in a minimum security prison. It was hardly OZ.”

Lillian looked at her, deadpan.  “There was no wi-fi. You know how he gets when there’s no wi-fi.”

Lena drank a little.  “Yes, it’s quite a privation, I know.”

Lex came in and seemed mildly surprised that they weren’t already in a fist fight.  “Oh, you’re here. I’m glad you didn’t trouble yourself with the dress code. I’ll have Jeeves bring in the caviar and creme fraiche.”

Lillian glanced at Lena with a raised eyebrow.  “I thought his name was Manuel.”

Lena shook her head.  “Just don’t ask.”

Lex poured himself a small glass of something green.

“What are you drinking, Lexy?” Lena asked.

“Absinthe.”

Lillian snorted.  “Why on earth would you drink that?”

“My pen pal says I should be living my best life.  My best life involves previously illegal eighteenth-century alcoholic beverages.”

Lillian gave Lena a pointed look.  “You see? Prison changes people.”

“Mother, he’s always had weird tastes.” She gestured around at the ornate woodwork and early nineteenth century oil paintings and impractical velvet couches.  “Look at his decorating, for god’s sake. This place looks like where Queen Victoria would go for booty calls with Prince Albert.” She glanced over at him. “No offense.”

Lillian snorted.  Lex offered a faint smile.  “None taken. That’s exactly what I was going for.”

“You keep talking about this pen pal of yours,” Lillian grumbled.  “She’s the one encouraging you to wear those silly suits and drink absinthe.”

He nodded.  “You’d like her, I think.  She’s quite brilliant, actually. I know ag is not your area, Mother, but she’s rather knowledgeable.  I think that’s why Lena is dating her.”

Lena was rather pleased at the momentary surprise on her mother’s face. “You’re dating Lex’s prison pen pal?”

“She’s not a prisoner, mother.  She’s a volunteer. She volunteers for a charity that sets up those pen pal things.”

Lillian hmphed.  

“Besides, so what if she was? Your son is an ex-convict, for goodness sake.”

“Your brother did not belong in jail.”

“For hacking the Pentagon and changing all the lights on the ballistic missile systems to spell out ‘U R Gay’?  Yes, he did, Mother, that’s how the law works.”

Lillian shook her head.  “Anyhow, I thought you were done with your whole lesbian phase.”

“I thought you were done with your whole ‘assuming my sexulity is a phase’ phase,” Lena shot back. “You never accuse Lexy of going through a phase.”

Lillian gestured around.  “Of course not! Look how he decorates.”

Lena groaned.  “Mother, there is more than one way to lesbian.”

“Yes,” Lillian answered tartly, “and I see which one you’ve chosen today.”

Lena downed the rest of her brandy and went back for another.

“So?  What is she like?”  Lillian asked after an uncomfortable silence in which Lena poured a drink and Lex sat on the edge of the divan, drinking his absinthe and looking mildly interested in what was going to happen next.

“You heard Lex.  She’s brilliant,” Lena finally answered, sipping from her second brandy. 

“Her area is agriculture?”  Lillian pressed. “So… she’s a farmer?”

“Yes,” Lex put in.

“She has a PhD in Molecular and Environmental Plant Sciences.”

“And she has a farm,” Lex contributed again.

Lena glared at him.  “Where she engineers different strains of wheat.  She’s developed one that doesn’t require pesticide to keep the bugs off.”

“Bit of culture shock for her, isn’t it?  Coming to the city?”

Lena knew her mother was just trying to undermine her because she had found something that made her happy.  That was her style. “She does fine.”

“She wears earplugs,” Lex offered. 

Lena wished he would shut up.  “She has sensory issues. I’m actually planning to spend more time out there instead of bringing her here so much.”

“You, on a farm?”

“Yes, Mother, it’s quite nice.”

“I’m sure. A bit rough, though, isn’t it?”

“Not really. They even have electricity and running water.”

Manuel came in with the hors d'oeuvres.

“Oh, there you are, Jeeves,” Lex remarked.

“Here I am, Chad. And here are your caviar and creme fraiche tarts.  Enjoy.”

“Chad?”  Lillian inquired as Manuel left.

Lena put a hand up.  “Don’t ask.”

“I just want you to be happy,” Lillian said, sipping her drink.  She pointed to the tray. “Can I have one of the ones on the end over there?”

Lena grabbed the three tarts on the end, crammed them into her mouth at once and sat there, staring defiantly at her mother.

Lex gave an amused little, “Hm.”

“Fine,” Lillian snorted.  “Be that way.”

_ I will, _ Lena thought.

  
  


***

 

Saturday evening rolled around.  Lena and Kara hadn’t managed to speak on the phone as much that week as she’d have liked, because they had both been busy and a little stressed.  She was looking forward to getting out with Cat and Sara, actually. She was at the smaller of her three places tonight, sitting around half-dressed while she nibbled on some leftover steamed vegetable dumplings, so that she didn’t get her going-out clothes dirty.

The door buzzer rang.  It was followed by some frantic knocking.  “Lena!”

She jumped out of her chair and ran to the door.  It sounded like Sara. She threw on a silk robe and opened to find, indeed, Sara standing there.  She looked very out of sorts and was wearing what looked like middle-class Victorian women’s wear.  “Are you okay?” she demanded.

Sara shook her head.  “Thank god, you know me.  Am I in the right place?”

“Well… I thought we were meeting at Rubyfruit later…” Lena replied, a little bewildered.  Sara was always weird but right now, she seemed legitimately disoriented.

Sara shook her head.  “No, I mean, am I in the right time?”

Lena frowned.  She ushered Sara inside and sat her down at the kitchen counter.  She got a glass out of the cabinet and got her some cold water from the fridge.  “Here, drink this.” Sara obediently drank. “Anyway, you’re about three hours early.”

Sara rubbed her forehead with her free hand, trying to keep the ruffle on her sleeve from dipping into her water glass.  “But … ugh… what’s the date?”

Lena shook her head.  Method acting? Shrooming?  She went with shrooming. “It’s August 4th, 2018.  Olivia Marsdin is president. Supernatural is inexplicably in its umpteenth season.  And Sara Lance needs to start drinking absinthe if she’s going to turn up all discombobulated on my doorstep in Victorian garb. Drink some more water.”

Sara drank.  Lena opened the cabinet and pulled out some Advil.  She dumped three into her hand. “Clearly, your head hurts.  Take these.”   


Sara popped them and washed them down with more water.  Lena couldn’t remember seeing her this bad off before.

“I left her behind, Lena,” she sighed heavily.

“Who?”

Sara shook her head.  “I’m supposed to marry her, I think.”

Lena came over and hugged her from behind.  “Okay, crazypants. I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but finish your water, have a couple of dumplings, get out of that ridiculous dress, and go take a nap in my bed.  If you’re still up for it in three hours, we’ll go to Rubyfruit.”

  
  
  


***

  
  


Sara woke up an hour and a half later, seeming a little more screwed-together and appreciative that Lena had been there in her hour of whatever the hell that was.  She departed, promising she’d see her at Rubyfruit.

Lena turned up at the club to find Cat nearing the bottom of an appletini at the bar and looking unusually mopey. “Jeez,” Lena remarked, “what happened to you?  You look like someone put Tim Allen back on television.”

“Do not mention that name in my presence,” Cat snapped.

Lena chuckled.  “Okay, sorry. What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine.”

“Bullshit.”  Lena sat down and waved the bartender over.  “Another appletini for my girl here, Rita, and I’ll have a jack and coke.”

The bartender nodded, blinked her glitter-dusted eyes once and began to mix their drinks.  

“So?”  What was it with her friends tonight, she wondered?  Sara was disoriented and now Cat was uncharacteristically morose.

“Nothing.”  Cat was watching the dance floor, where an appealing group of girls was cavorting somewhat drunkenly to the smoking hot grooves of lesbian funk band G-Thang.

“I repeat.  Bullshit. You’re never like this.”

Cat drained her glass and set it down on the bar.  She sighed. Still gazing at the dance floor, she murmured, “I suppose I just miss them more than I expected to.”

“Who?”

“Who do you think?” Cat snapped, suddenly impatient.  “Barry and Iris.”

Lena sat, gobsmacked for a moment.  The bartender set their drinks down.  “Put it on my tab, Rita.”

“So… something… did happen?”

“I told you, that’s none of your business.”

Lena rubbed her temples for a moment, then took a drink of her jack and coke.  “Cat, I’m just trying to help. You just… usually give me more information than I ever ask you for when it comes to that, and this is… out of character.  Frankly, I’m a little worried.”

Cat scoffed.

“Evening, ladies,” came a familiar voice from behind them.

Lena turned.  She was confronted with the sight of a very butch-looking woman with short, blond hair and wearing what looked like an American World War I uniform.  It took her a full five seconds to realize that she was looking at Sara Lance. “What the hell did you do to your hair?” she demanded.

“I’m going undercover in dude drag,” she answered cheerfully.

Cat spun around on her stool and evaluated her for a moment.  “I don’t hate it,” she decided.

“But when did you cut your hair?” Lena pressed.  “I only saw you an hour and a half, two hours ago!”

Sara ran a hand over the closely-shorn part of her scalp, grinning.  “It’s a buzz cut. It takes like five minutes.”

Lena shook her head.  

“Thanks, by the way,” Sara added.  “You really fixed me up back there.”

“So, are you still called Sara,” Cat wanted to know.  “Or are we going to have to call you by a drag name?”

“I was thinking Steve.”

Lena drank some more while Cat and Sara engaged on the matter of Sara’s name.

Cat balked. “Steve?  That’s awful. I’m calling you Stephen.”

“Cat, I’m supposed to be a military guy.  I should be Steve.”

“Well, how about Trevor?  That’s period-appropriate, I would think, by the World War I cut of that uniform.”

“Trevor?  Ugh. Lena, what do you think?  Steve? Or Trevor?”

Lena rolled her eyes.  “Both. Be Steve Trevor, okay?”

Cat scoffed again.  Sara thought about it.  “It’s not bad. Okay, Lena wins.  Truly, you are Solomon the Wise.” 

“And you would know, since I’m sure you’ve met him,” Lena jested.  

Sara slid onto the barstool next to Lena.  “So, what were we talking about before I interrupted you two?”

“Cat was pining after Barry and Iris,” Lena supplied, “and I was about to tell her that she’s being a dummy because if she wants to see them, she’s rich and can just get on a plane and go see them.”

“Honestly, Lena…” Cat began to protest.

“Look, I know you’re being all tight-lipped about whatever it is, but you obviously really like them.  So even if you aren’t dating them–”

“Or boning them,” Sara interjected.

Lena shot her a look.  “Just do what I do. Get on a plane and go out there.”

Cat sighed.  “I really didn’t intend to find myself here.”

Lena shook her head and put the second appletini in Cat’s hand.  “Well, I don’t really know where here is, since you won’t tell me.  But, if you miss them, go spend time with them. Maybe they miss you back, I don’t know.  Don’t suddenly quit being Cat Grant and impulsively seizing what you want just because you have a thing for some apple-cheeked country bumpkins.”

“They’re not apple-cheeked,” Sara objected.

“They are, a little,” Cat admitted.

Lena grinned.  “It’s an awfully nice change of pace, isn’t it?”

Cat nodded.  “I’m calling them.”  She pulled out her phone.

Lena stayed her hand.  “Don’t do that, it’s midnight there.”

“Right.”

  
  


****

 

So, Lena got a bright idea.  It took her a few days to put everything together, but Kara was extremely supportive.  She turned up at Cat’s office at lunchtime on Tuesday.

Cat took off one of her pairs of glasses and dropped it on her desk.  “I didn’t know we had a thing now.”

“I called Sandy and put it on your calendar.”

Cat was in all-business mode.  “So?”

“SOoooo…”  She laid her palms flat on the table and stared at her with mischief in her eyes.  “I have arranged for the two of us to go fly out for a five day weekend in Georgia next weekend.  Carter even helped me get in touch with his dad so he can stay there while you’re gone. Sandy cleared all your appointments and you are getting your ass on the L-Corp jet with me and flying out.”

Cat took off the second pair of glasses which was perched on top of her head.  “What? Sandy moved the board meeting?”

“Uh-huh.  I had to bribe Jack Peterson with my table at Nobu.”

Cat looked impressed.  She whipped out her phone to confirm that this had happened and see if there was anything that had been missed.

While she was scrolling, Lena glanced up at the screens behind Cat’s desk.  There was, apparently, a massive wildfire in Oconee National Forest, in Georgia.  Lena’s heart jumped a little. She pulled out her phone to see exactly where it was, relative to Kara.  “Shit,” she whispered. It wasn’t far at all.

She looked up again.

“What’s the matter?” Cat asked, half-paying attention as she thumbed through her calendar.

“Wildfire in Kara’s neck of the woods.”

She watched the footage as it streamed live.  The reporter was explaining the measures being taken by the local fire teams; smokejumpers were going it at ground level, but they were concerned at how long the air tankers were taking.  The winds were not favorable, blowing south and pushing the flames further into the forest. She watched footage of the blaze for a moment. It was hard to see much through all the flames, but it seemed like a streak of red lighting kept appearing in the flames.  A moment later, the winds were changing. The reporter commented on the shift in the wind. Something, though he didn’t say what, or couldn’t, was containing the fire from spreading south while they waited for the air tankers.

Cat was standing now, too.  They didn’t move until the reporter had determined that the air tankers had come.  “I better call Kara,” Lena finally said.

Cat nodded.

“And you better call Barry and Iris.”

“At least now I have a good reason.”

Lena smiled and shook her head.  She walked out onto Cat’s terrace and rang Kara.  No answer. She left a message. “Hi baby, it’s me.  I just saw on the news that there’s a wildfire down your way, so I just wanted to check in and see if you were alright and make sure nobody you cared about was caught up in it.  Give me a call when you have a chance.”

For all she knew, she thought with amusement, Kara was a volunteer firefighter along with everything else.  She was suddenly consumed with desire to get out there. The weekend seemed too long to wait. She had an extraordinary girlfriend, and she wanted to see her.  She strolled inside.

Cat was on the phone, talking softly.  “I’m so glad you’re alright. Lena and I were both concerned… yes.... And listen, I think it’s a good idea for you to cover it, it would be good experience for you, but just be careful and let the emergency personnel do their job… and for god’s sake wear either wool or silk, they’re harder to ignite, they burn slower and-- no, no, don’t wear polyester.  No blends, either. They don’t burn easily but if they do, they’ll melt and stick to your skin like napalm. Yes. Alright. Go go go. Be careful. Let me know how it goes.”

“Fashion advice in the middle of a wildfire?”

“Safety advice,” Cat replied tartly.

“Everyone’s okay, then?”

“So it seems.  She says Barry is nowhere near it.  She seemed very enthusiastic at the prospect of our visit.”

Lena nodded.  “I couldn’t get Kara.  She’s probably on the tractor.  She can never hear her phone when she’s on that thing.”

Cat grinned at her.  “So, Podunk here we come?”

“Podunk, here we come.”


	15. Chapter 15

“So,” Alex mused out loud, drawing the straps tight around Moses, the family’s brown and white spotted paint horse.  “Cat’s gonna stay with Barry and Iris, huh?”

Kara shrugged.  “Yeah.”

Alex looked askance.

Kara held up her hands.  “Don’t ask me, I just work here.”  

Moses was a little skittish, the way he could be when there looked to be weather rolling in.  He started to twitch a little as Alex was tacking him. 

“Anyway,” Kara went on, “I’m really looking forward to spending time with Lena, now that she knows what’s what.”

Alex frowned.  Moses snorted and tugged his head away, not entirely cooperating with Alex’s efforts.  “Yeah, Iris texted me about that. She doesn’t seem too sure Lena actually knows what’s what.  I’m concerned maybe you were a little tired your brain was a little soupy and maybe filling stuff into the conversation that wasn’t there.”

Kara tried to look indignant but she shuffled awkwardly for a moment and propped the hoe she was holding against the side of the barn.  She waited while Alex knotted the reins around one hand, took Moses by his long, horsey face and pulled him eye to eye with her. 

“Moses,” she said gently but firmly, “that’s quite enough.  Now settle down, we’ve got some work to do.” She scratched behind his ear, and reached into her pocket and held out her open palm, which contained a couple of dried apricots.  Moses ate the apricots and nodded his head a few times, his big rubbery lips working over his teeth.

Kara glanced up and noticed Astra several feet away, gazing at them with fascination and… Kara wasn’t even about to contemplate what else.  When Alex also noticed her presence, she kept looking at Moses, but called over her shoulder, “Don’t you have something to do, Astra?”

“I was waiting for the animal to trample you,” Astra responded archly, “but it appears I am out of luck.”

Alex snorted and swung herself up into the saddle.  She winked at Kara. “If that ain’t love, I don’t know what is,” she chuckled.  “Now listen, don’t be a dummy about this Lena thing. You let me talk to her and figure out what she knows, alright?”

Kara nodded dumbly and watched Alex ride away.

 

****

  
  


Lena drove in from ATL.  She and Cat had rented separate cars and Cat had headed over to Barry and Iris’s place.  They’d connect later that night or perhaps tomorrow. 

Kara, who had been so confident that she’d be able to really relax with Lena this visit, found herself oddly anxious.  When her rented convertible rolled up the dirt driveway, Kara’s heart skipped a little, and she jogged down to meet her, swept her up, and kissed her.

Lena glanced up at the overcast early evening sky, then looked around.  “Where is everyone?”

“Well, Jeremiah and Eliza are at the uni, they both teach evening classes on Thursdays, and Alex is out on a run, but she oughta be back soon.”

“And Astra?”

Kara shrugged.  “Ain’t seen her lately.  She finished all the chores we gave her and she…”  There was a good chance she’d gone to the forest to practice flying but Kara caught herself short.  “Probably just went for a walk or something.”

Lena looked quizzical but didn’t push.  “So, what are dinner plans?”

Kara thrust her hands in her back pockets.  “Well, I could grill something up, I guess. Or we could drive over to Randallsville for some soul food, if you wanted.”

“I could cook,” Lena offered.

Kara gave her a suspicious look.  “Would it have kale in it?”

Lena laughed.  “It doesn’t have to.”

At this moment, Alex’s black jeep came rolling up the driveway behind Lena’s.  She got out, looking mildly annoyed. 

“Hey, Alex!” Lena called cheerfully.

Alex nodded in her direction.  “Evenin’, Lena.” She walked around to the other side of the car and opened the door.  Astra stepped out. She looked back at them. “So, look what I found over by Oconee.”

“That’s the forest where the fire was, right?” Lena put in.

Alex nodded.

“How’d she get all the way down there?” Lena wanted to know.

Alex shot Kara a look.  “Listen, I’m not the best person for this job…” 

“You are, unfortunately,” Astra insisted.

Alex groaned.  “Kara, can you take her back to the house and I’ll be up in a minute?”  She glanced at Lena. “Lena, you mind giving me a hand with the groceries?  I picked up some beer and some stuff to grill tonight.”

Lena nodded.  Kara came and took Astra’s arm gently and said, “C’mon now, Astra, let’s get on up to the house and you can tell me what happened.”

They walked slowly and Astra began explaining that she had felt a sudden need to escape the confines of the farm.  She had been feeling claustrophobic. To test her powers, she had decided to see if she could listen for and distinguish Alex’s heartbeat.  And indeed, she had. She followed the sound of it and had found her at a client’s home near Oconee, but was dismayed to find, after she had landed, that she was unable to take off again.  Alex found her near the roadside, embarrassed beyond words. 

Kara shook her head.  When she was mastering flight, that had happened to her a few times.  If she was too excited or disoriented or emotional, she couldn’t make her brain do what it needed to do to alter her relationship to gravity.  

She brought Astra up to the spare room that was serving as her bedroom, wrapped her in a blanket, and held her tightly for a few minutes.  While she did, she adjusted her hearing and listened to Lena and Alex bringing in the groceries.

“And needless to say,” Lena was saying, “nothing made me happier than the surprised look on that idiot’s face when your sister and her friends stomped him into the ground.  She’s quite extraordinary.”

“Mm,” Alex agreed politely.  “She’s not like other girls, is she.”

Lena laughed.  “Not at all. I mean, just … well, you know, I don’t want to go on and on at you, you’re her sister, but she’s really special.”

“So… here, you don’t have to take all that, give me that other bag… so I heard y’all had a big talk after she got back from Nat City last time.”

Lena paused awkwardly.  “Oh. Yeah, well, you know.  I think she was just worried that the distance was too hard for me, and you know… her being different from the people I know.”

“What do you mean, different?” Alex pressed.

“Just, you know…”  Lena sighed. “Country.  She was worried that my brother would look down on her for that, or that he had some kind of prejudice about her being from the country.”

_ What? _  Kara thought.   _ I was worried about him having a prejudice against aliens! _

“Really?” Alex mused.  “She said that?”

“Yes,” Lena said quickly.  Then she amended, “I mean, not in so many words, I don’t remember exactly how she put it but that was my takeaway.”

_ Not in so many words?  Not in any of those words at all! _

“Well, I’ve heard about your brother’s thing against the military, Larry the Cable Guy, and aliens.  But your brother has a thing against country folk?”

Lena sighed.  “Don’t believe everything you hear.  Lex does and says a lot of things for attention.  Anyway, no, he doesn’t have a thing against country folk, but you know… a lot of city people do, they hear an accent and think… well, it doesn’t matter.  Not all of us are like that. I guess she worried about Lex or my friends or whatever.”

“Hm,” was all Alex said.

Kara sighed heavily.  So Alex had been right.  Kara’s tired brain had filled in a conversation that hadn’t quite happened and Lena didn’t know a damn thing.  She had really been enjoying the idea that she’d gotten that out of the way. She was going to have to do it this weekend.  It was just a matter of finding the right time.

  
  


*****

  
  


Lucy Lane rolled up a short while later on her bike as the sun was starting to get low in the sky.  The clouds were thickening, but Kara was optimistic, insisting that the weather wasn’t supposed to hit till a few hours later.  Plenty of time for dinner. 

Alex gave Lucy a beer and she hung out nearby and occasionally lent a hand while Alex manned the grill.  Their shop talk was the usual DEO stuff, easy and quiet, full of code words. Kara was glad she wasn’t on grill duty.  It was about a week ago that she and Barry had contained the fire at Oconee and it had taken a lot out of her. She was fine, of course, but she was just as happy not to be breathing in smoke.  And Alex really liked to char the hell out of her chops.

“So what happened with Astra?” Lena asked as they sat on the porch and drank.

Kara sighed.  “Aw, don’t worry about it.  She’s ok. She’s just laying down up in the house.”

“Hm.  So, are Lucy and Alex…?”  She paused significantly.

Kara snorted.  “Naw, they just work together.  We’ve known Lucy since summer art camp in seventh grade.”  Kara wondered if now was the moment. “So,” she began hesitantly, “um… you know that fire we had down here last week?  Did you watch the news about it or anything?”

Lena looked quizzical.  “Of course, why?”

“Well, you know it was moving, right?  Winds blowing south into the forest and all?”

Lena nodded.  “Yes, I remember that.”

There came a loud honk.  Cat’s rented Caddy pulled up in the driveway and she emerged with Barry and Iris.  “Kara Danvers, as I live and breathe!” Cat called.

Kara smiled and waved.

Cat marched up to the porch and planted herself in front of Kara and Lena, hands on hips.  “What, no hug?”

Kara grinned, jumped down to the ground, and greeted Cat by picking her up and then plopping her back down.

“That’s better,” Cat sniffed.

Lena came down and glanced between the three who had just arrived.  “You three having a good time?” she asked rather pointedly.

Cat wrinkled her nose at Lena.  “Perfectly lovely.” She turned toward the grill and spotted Lucy and Alex.  “Hello, hello,” she muttered. 

Iris gave her a knowing wink.  “Better go on over and say hi.”

Cat glanced at Barry and Iris, both of whom were grinning at her.  “Do you mind?”

“Course not!”  

So Cat made her way over and while Kara made the choice not to listen in, it was pretty clear that Cat was laying it on fairly thick.  She punctuated whatever she was saying by picking a wild cardinal flower and tucking its red blossom behind Lucy’s ear. Lucy sipped her beer and looked at her warily, but also with about as much interest as Kara could recall seeing on her face.

“So,” Kara murmured in Lena’s ear, “guess it’s not what we thought after all.”

Lena sighed.  “Who knows? The way Cat was pining over them, you wouldn’t believe it.”

Kara sighed.

“So what was it you were going to tell me before we were so fabulously interrupted?”

Kara scratched her head.  “Aw, nothin.” She’d lost her nerve.  It didn’t feel right to tell her now, at a barbecue with everyone.  It’d be better later. Take her out to the creek or something. Make it romantic.  Something sitting on top of the grill spontaneously went up in flames. “Looks like Alex needs a hand.”  She jogged over to the grill.

  
  


***

 

They ate outdoors at one of the long wooden picnic tables near the orchard.  Lena found herself engaging with Alex while Cat had found herself at the nucleus of a little molecule where Barry, Iris and Lucy were clustered around her.  Kara smiled to herself. Things were getting sciencey with Alex and Lena, and it was nice to see. She was comfortable here, or it seemed that way anyhow. Kara hung back for a little while and watched.

Astra turned up behind her after a minute.  “Her understanding of theoretical chemistry is better than adequate.”  It sounded like a grudging compliment.

Kara smiled.  “You’re listening in on Alex and Lena’s conversation?”

Astra shrugged.  “Sometimes it cannot be helped.  I have not fully developed this skill you call selective hearing.”

Kara finished the end of her beer before speaking.  It occurred to her that she didn’t really like beer all that much except for those fruity ones that Diana’s aunt made, but it was just habit now.  “Anyway, it’s not even her main thing like it is for Alex.”

“I was  _ talking _ about Alex.”

Kara groaned internally.  

“But as for your prospective mate–”

“Just call her my girlfriend, please.”

“As for your girlfriend.  Is she aware of your… origins?”

Kara sighed.  “I thought she was but it seems she’s not so now I have to tell her and I don’t want to.”

“Because you fear rejection.”

Kara nodded.

“But it is better to have things in the open,” Astra pressed.

Kara folded her arms.  “Like your feelings about Alex?” she prodded.

Astra frowned at her.  “We are not talking about me.”

Kara stomped her foot a little and a little dirt cloud puffed up around her boot heel.  “You’re supposed to say  _ I don’t have any feelings about Alex, Kara _ .”

“Would it trouble you so much if I did?”

Kara groaned, this time externally.  “It’d just be weird for me, okay? Can you understand that?”

Astra smiled, a faint sadness lingering around her eyes.  “Of course. And do not worry. I do not desire your sister.  She is too small for my tastes, and too full of that human ...”  She hunted a moment for the word. “...sass.”

Kara nudged her aunt with an elbow.  “Yeah, yeah.”

“Now.  We have discussed that it is better to have the truth in your relationship.  So? Will you tell her? It is really a lot of work for me to behave around her in a way that passes for human.”

“Well, I hate to cause you discomfort.”  Kara winked. 

Astra did not meet her eyes, but gazed thoughtfully at Lena and Alex talking.  “Yes,” she said after a moment, in a careful tone, “she is a suitable mate. Honesty is best.”

Kara couldn’t help wondering if Astra was really talking about Lena.  They wandered closer to the table and Astra helped herself to a couple of burgers that were still sitting out on the plate.  Kara grabbed another pork chop and tucked herself next to Lena. Astra lingered near the still-smoldering grill, munching on her burgers and not quite knowing what to do with herself.  “There’s beers in the cooler,” Alex called over her shoulder, and went back to her conversation. “I think anything you do, anything you develop, has to pass that test, but also the test of, how will impact the people I know and care about?  Because it’s easy to get caught up in the thinking of developing on a global scale–”

“Which you should,” Lena interjected.

“–which you should,” Alex agreed, “but I think you have to think about the personal element.”

“The human element?”

Alex paused.  “The  _ personal _ element.  You have to personalize it.  Its impact has to be real to you.”

“Intimate and individual,” Kara contributed.

“Right.  Besides,” Alex added, “not everyone is human, technically.”

“You sound like my brother,” Lena teased.

“Superman’s not human,” Alex pointed out.  

Kara heard Astra snort at the mention of his name.

“You can’t possibly think he’s the only alien running around on Earth,” Alex pressed.

Lena shrugged.  “I don’t know. I’d need evidence.”

Kara cleared her throat.  “Anyhow,” she said, giving Alex a pointed look, “back to your point, Alex, which is that tech for its own sake… look, I could have taken my PhD and gone to work at a pharma company but I decided I’d rather do my own work and have an impact on the community I lived in.  There’s nothing wrong with big scale, mind you. It’s just important to remember that there are folks on the other end of the development chain, and that’s why you’re doing it. Not just development for development’s sake.”

Lena frowned but didn’t make a rejoinder.  An awkward silence fell.

Kara tuned in to Cat’s conversation with Lucy, Barry and Iris in time to hear Cat remarking, “Well, I’m simply saying that for a story to rise to the national level, it has to be truly extraordinary.  With all respect, Iris, I saw your coverage and it was very good, but I felt like you needed to pull out a little more of what was really extraordinary.”

Barry cracked his knuckles.  “Well, you know, it was plenty extraordinary but she couldn’t actually write about it.”

Cat looked intrigued.  “Oh? Do tell.”

Kara gave him a panicked look.  Surely he wasn’t about to tell them about his and Kara’s involvement in containing it?  Thinking that everyone at the table already knew their secret? She shook her head. “Barry…”

He looked innocently at her.  “What?”

“Nobody wants to hear about its impact on the soil, alright?”  She put a lot of force behind her voice and hoped he would get the hint and shut up.

Confused recognition dawned on his face. “Oh… well… um, you know.  I just thought it would be real interesting.”

Iris sat shaking her head.

Cat reached over and pinched his cheek.  “It’s alright, Bartholomew, you can tell me all about later when we’re curled up at your place.”  Iris just chuckled. Lucy seemed slightly bemused, but kept fiddling with the flower Cat tucked behind her ear earlier.

Kara and Lena exchanged a confused glance.  Man, but she could not make head or tail of what was happening at that end of the table.

Somehow, they got through the rest of dinner.

  
  


***

  
  


Later that night, Kara and Lena were lying in the flatbed of Kara’s truck, parked out by a bend in the creek.  Kara was feeling a certain unease from Lena, and so she put her urge to have The Talk on hold, and leaned over to kiss her forehead.  “Want to talk about it?”

“About what?”

“Whatever’s on your mind, baby.  You feel real heavy right now and I just wondered if… something was bothering you.”

Lena sighed and looked over at her.  “I just…” She hesitated. “I felt like you and Alex were both… I don’t know.  I just felt like you were giving me a hard time, or implying that I don’t consider the consequences of my actions in terms of developing new tech.  That I don’t consider the human element or that it’s some kind of intellectual masturbation for me.”

Kara shook her head.  “Nah, baby, not at all.  You know I think you’re a genius.  And I know you want to make people’s lives better.  You got your priorities straight. We were just talking in the abstract.”

But Lena didn’t seem satisfied.  “Alex didn’t seem convinced of that.”

“Well who cares?” Kara demanded.  “You don’t care what your brother thinks about me.”

“But you do care what Alex thinks,” Lena pouted.  “And I didn’t feel like you were defending me.”

Kara groaned.  “C’mon, baby. I didn’t defend you ‘cause she wasn’t attacking you.  She was just trying to look at the subject from a different angle.”

Lena wasn’t in the mood to let it drop, though.  “I mean, honestly, when I was helping her with the groceries she was asking me all kinds of questions about us, and I couldn’t help wondering if she doesn’t approve of me because of my family.”

“First of all, that’s not a thing,” Kara said firmly.  “Second of all, even if it was a thing, I make my own decisions. If I thought badly about you, you wouldn’t be here right now.  And hell, for a thirdly, you know I like Lex just fine.”

Lena sat up.  “I guess,” she said sulkily.  “I just… I don’t know. It felt awkward.”

Kara put an arm around her.  “Now don’t go reading into things.  It was just a nice conversation about morality and science.”

Lena shrugged her arm away.  “Listen, um… I’m not really feeling romantic right now, can we drive back up to the house?”

Kara deflated.  “Whatever you want.”  She glanced up at the moon, wrapped in a film of haze, and thick head of clouds moving toward them.  “Looking like rain anyhow.”

  
  


***

  
  


The raindrops were already spitting against the windows by the time they arrived back at Kara’s.  Astra was sulking on the porch, staring into the distance. Kara just dragged Lena past her. It was no good trying to talk to Astra when she was like this.  They entered the house to find two broken kitchen chairs locked in what appeared to be mortal combat. Alex was leaning next to the sink, scowling.

Lena’s eyebrows went up.  “Everything ok?”

Alex took a long pull from a can of beer.  “Oh. Yeah. Just fuckin’ peachy.”

Kara winced.  “She have a PTSD episode?”

“Oh yeah.”

Outside, a vein of lightning tore open the sky. The rain began pounding against the eaves and beating against the porch.  Thunder vibrated in the floorboards. 

“Does she, um.  Break a lot of furniture?” Lena asked uncomfortably.

Alex glowered from under the brim of her cowboy hot.  “Well, Lena, that’s our third coffee table since she showed up.”  She left the thought unfinished and drank some more of her beer.

Lena bit her lip.  “Look, baby, I don’t know.  I don’t feel like this is a good time to be here.  It just feels like you’ve got too much going on and, and… I should go.”

Kara grabbed her shoulder, mindful not to squeeze too hard.  “No! Why would you say that?”

Lena shrugged.  “Look, I just feel… well…”  She paused, clearly not wanting to discuss it in front of Alex.  “...I don’t know. You’re acting weird, and maybe you’re just nervous about your aunt’s behavior or something.  I don’t know. I just… I think I should just let you deal with your family.” She pulled out of Kara’s grasp and headed for the stairs to go up to Kara’s room and fetch her bags.

Kara trailed after her.  “Baby, listen. Don’t go!”

But Lena had decided her mission now.  She grabbed her bag from Kara’s bed and started back toward the stairs.

Kara blocked her path.  “Come on, I’m not… Look, don’t you think we should… talk about it?”

Lena gave her a frustrated look.  “Please, Kara. I don’t think you’re particularly in a place where you’re able to talk about it.  I’ll call you tomorrow. Just let me go to my car.”

Kara gestured out the window, where another lightning flash illuminated the sky framed in the window.  “That’s crazy, Lena. You can’t seriously think you should be driving in that! Just stay!”

But when Lena had set her mind to something, you couldn’t change it.  Kara knew that. She sighed and stood aside. “I really wish you wouldn’t.  It ain’t safe.”

“I’m fine,” Lena insisted.  She walked down the stairs.

Kara bounded after her, past Astra and into the pouring rain.  “Just think about this! Don’t go all the way home. Just take a deep breath and calm down.”

“Does telling a woman to calm down usually make her calm down?” Lena demanded as she stalked out to the car.

“Look, I just… there were things I wanted to tell you this weekend and I can’t do that if you go!”  Kara shouted desperately. Rain was coming down in buckets, Lena was already drenched and her hair was sticking to her face in thick, wet strings.  

Lena frowned and paused for a moment.  She opened the back door and tossed her suitcase in.  She slammed the door and peered through the rain at Kara.  “I’ll call you,” she promised, and her face softened for a moment.  Then she got in the car and drove away through the pouring rain.

Kara panicked for a moment.  She could fly after her. No.  How would she explain being wherever she was with no mode of transport?  She could follow her in the truck. After a moment, Astra finally spoke, calling out to her from the porch.  “Iris and Barry are with her friend. Her friend will tell you what to do.”

Right.  Cat was Lena’s best friend.  She’d have the best advice. She whipped her phone out of her pocket and called Barry.  It went to voice mail. “Goddamnit,” she muttered. She tried Iris. It went to voice mail.  “Shit!” she grumbled. She sent them both texts.  _ PICK UP YOUR GODDAMN PHONE THIS IS SERIOUS. _

Barry called a moment later.  “You alright?”

“Why in hell ain’t you answering your phone?  Wait, nevermind, I don’t want to know. Is Cat there?”

“‘Course,” Barry replied.  

“Let me talk to her.”

A moment of brief rustling followed, and then Cat’s incredibly distinctive voice came through the phone.  “What’s the emergency, Annie Oakley?”

Kara sighed.  “Things got a little weird with Lena and my aunt had an episode and Lena drove off.”

Cat paused.  “What do you mean, got weird?” she demanded.

“Just… she…”  Kara realized she was still standing under a downpour and trudged back up to the porch.  “...she and Alex were just talkin’ and I guess she took some stuff the wrong way and got mad that I didn’t defend her.  We kinda fought about it a little. And then we got back to the house and Astra’d had some PTSD episode and broke some furniture and… I don’t know.  It just set Lena off and she went driving away. In this shit.”

Cat huffed.  “You know, I told you not to fuck this up, farm girl.”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry.”  Kara was a little bit desperate.  “Look, I just… I don’t understand why she just drove off like that.”

“You freaked her out, obviously.”  A beat of quiet followed in which it sounded like Cat was maybe drinking something and Kara heard her murmur a quiet  _ thank you _ .  “Look, you want the truth, I think that all along, this has kind of been an escape for her, and she has kind of idealized you and now, all of a sudden, you’re a real person with flaws and tensions and not everything is idyllic and your crazy aunt is really visibly crazy, and it got a little too real for her.”

“Well how do I fix it?” Kara demanded.  “Where the hell would she even go?”

“Well, that is the question,” Cat mused.  Kara heard a familiar pinging sound and then she heard Cat asking, “Siri, where would Lena Luthor go in a rainstorm if she wanted a hotel?”

Kara snorted.  “Are you kidding me?  You’re asking Siri?”

But a moment later, Siri answered, “Hotels in your area: the closest is Oconee Lodge on State Route 19.”

“That’s where she went,” Cat said, dead certain.

“Are you fuckin’ serious?”

“Lena doesn’t know her way around here.  She won’t go back to ATL and fly home, not in this weather.  And she doesn’t really want to run away from you. I’m betting she just wants to catch her breath. She’ll get a hotel for the night and then call you.  She doesn’t know the area, so she’ll ask Siri. If that’s what Siri told me, then that’s what Siri will tell Lena. That’s where she’s going.” And then Kara heard her murmur,  _ No, no, put that down, Barry, I’ll show you after I get off the phone. _

Kara didn’t even want to know.  She was about to roll her eyes, thank Cat and hang up, when something else pinged at the edge of her hearing.  “Shit.”

“What?” Cat responded.

It was the civil defense sirens in Athens County.  She knew those sirens. It was bad news. “Thanks for your help, Cat. Put Barry on the phone,” she said quickly.

Barry was back a moment later.  “What’s up?”

“Barry, do you hear the Athens County civil defense sirens?”

“Naw, but you know I can’t hear like you do, and I… wait… the civil defense sirens?”

“Yeah,” Kara said urgently. “You been worrying about that dam and I bet you anything this deluge…”

“Holy hell!” he shouted.  “If it ain’t broken yet, it’s gonna break soon!  They don’t blow those sirens for no reason and it sure as shit isn’t a forest fire this time!”

“And Cat’s convinced that Lena’s headed up Route 19.  That’s right in the goddamn floodplain!”

“Suit up?” he asked.

“Not for me, but you do what you gotta.  See you over there.” She stuffed the phone back in her pocket.  

Astra looked up.  “You are facing a danger,” she observed.

Kara nodded.  “And so is Lena.  And I don’t think she even knows it.”

Astra stood.  “I will accompany you.”  She turned and called into the house.  “Alexandra! Put on your special clothing.  Your sister requires our assistance.”


	16. Chapter 16

Lena followed Siri’s directions up the highway toward the hills.  The rain was beating furiously against the windshield, and the oaks and hickory trees along the road were shuddering wildly under the downpour.  Lena had the wipers up as high as they’d go and she was still struggling to see the road clearly. She imagined this drive up to the forest park would probably be nice in decent weather.  

She wished Kara would have tried to hear what she was saying: sometimes she felt like they understood each other well enough that she didn’t need to spell some things out.  But maybe she did. Maybe she needed to say,  _ You know, my family has been reckless and sometimes awful about their choices and I’m trying to be better than that, maybe responsible development is a really, really personal issue for me. _  Maybe, she thought, that wasn’t as obvious as she would have hoped it to be.  She wondered if they were still heading in the right direction.

Actually, she wondered if she, personally, was headed in the right direction.  There seemed to be an awful lot of vehicles going the opposite way; away from the forest, the park, the dam, the whole area.  And then the sirens came.

Not fire sirens.  No, these were bigger, louder, more urgent.  These were “something really bad is coming” sirens.  Some of the cars passing her were honking at her as they approached through a large pool of rushing water in the road whose depth was difficult to gauge.  Their wheels cast up big grey wakes as they passed through. She frowned. It didn’t look so bad on the other side of it, but there was water pouring down the embankment on the opposite side of the road.  Even the pickup trucks that were making their way through didn’t seem too thrilled about it. She wondered if she ought to turn around.

With nobody in her rearview, she rolled to a stop in front of the puddle which was so large it was really more of a pond.  A couple more pickups and SUVs rolled slowly through it, their headlights scything through the dark and the rain, trying not to kick up too much water, while Lena weighed trying to get across versus turning around and looking for another hotel.  

She heard the wall of water before she saw it.  It came as this vast, faraway gurgling, the sound of breaking twigs and branches, a rushing, and the smell of rain and overturned earth, growing louder and stronger by the moment.  She knew it was a bad sound. Her heart pounded in her ears as she tried to calculate her best choice given the time she probably didn’t have. Turning around was going to be nearly impossible now.  It was through the huge, swampy puddle of floodwater, or nothing. She revved the engine once, shook her head, and drove forward.

She rolled forward, slowly, trying not to kick up too much of a wake.  The pickup trucks coming the other direction were moving a little faster now, though, and large waves slopped up against her driver’s side window.  She eased harder on the gas and pushed further into the giant puddle, and felt the unpleasant sensation of the car’s handling becoming logey as the water crept up around her wheels.  She heard it sloshing around the bottom of the door. She cursed and pounded the steering wheel once, then pushed forward again. She realized with a shudder that the water seemed to be getting higher, faster.  She tried to push ahead but it was like dragging the car through molasses.

The sound was getting louder.

She glanced up to her left in time to see an enormous wall of water pounding down the ridge and hurl itself down the embankment.  Time stopped and Lena thought back to the swim classes, the survival courses, the wilderness training, all the ridiculous classes and clinics her parents put her through as a young girl and now she thought she knew why.  So that she would be prepared and know what to do if she found herself in a car that was basically immobilized in the path of an oncoming flood.

The water tumbled down, obscuring the haze-wrapped moon, submerging the car, dropping with a metallic roar onto the roof, and then washing it off the road entirely.  She felt the car get lifted up in the swell and lost all traction in the wheels. She couldn’t see exactly what she was headed towards but she knew there was a quarry or something off to what used to be her right.  She cursed and hung onto the steering wheel, carried along, and felt the car tipping to the right. Water leaked in through the doors. Trying to get out was a non-starter. She was being carried along too fast. 

She scrambled under the seat for a plastic bag she was pretty sure she still had under there.  She unbuckled her belt as the car continued slowly shifting onto its side and sliding toward the quarry.  Water continued to seep in around the doors. She scrambled to rearrange herself so she was now crouching on the passenger side door, trying to stay upright as the car was swept along.  Water was up to her ankles. If she opened the driver’s side window, she could get out on top of the car, and then what? Out into the fast-moving flood waters?

The car lifted, and her stomach lurched.  She thought maybe another swell had come over the embankment. Great, she thought.  But then the car  _ kept _ lifting.  She tried to peer out the windsheild and she saw the muddy, rushing water below her.  She also saw just how close she’d gotten to the edge of the quarry. But… “What the fuck?” she whispered.  What was lifting her up? 

She watched out the windshield as the ground moved further away.  She saw just how much water there was and just how fast it was moving.  What the hell was lifting her? The car sailed up over the embankment where the water was still rushing down.  She could see the dam now, and could see that two release valves at the bottom of it had been opened in an effort to protect its integrity, but that at least two massive cracks ran up from its base.  She kept seeing a red flash of lightning through the trees around the foot of the dam. Weird. She thought she’d seen that in the forest fire footage too. 

The car glided through the air, rain still beating against the windows, ghostly moonlit clouds all that was visible through the windshield, and then it drifted to a patch of higher ground at the top of a small plateau on the western edge of the dam.  She sat, waiting, ready for just about anything. She hovered a few feet above the wet ground for a moment, and then the car settled into the dirt, still on its side, with a large squelching sound that Lena felt through her whole body. 

A moment later, the driver’s door opened, and Kara was crouching on the other side of it, perched on top of the car, reaching into it.  She was wearing some kind of black, full bodysuit and her short hair was soaked and sticking to her head.

Lena looked up, not fully processing what she was seeing, and took Kara’s hand.  Kara lifted her out easily -- too easily-- and took her gently in her arms and held her for a moment.  “Are you okay?” she asked breathlessly.

Lena nodded.  “I… I think so but… what the hell happened…. And…. and what are you wearing?”

Kara gave her a pained little smile.  She lifted them both up, and then up, and Lena felt again for a moment the strange sense of not being bound to gravity, and then they stood on the muddy ground together.  

“Wait…” she began, numbly.  

Kara reached forward and Lena watched her arm muscles flex through the tight fabric of the suit, and watched as she turned the car off of its side and back onto its wheels.  The entire passenger side was coated with mud.  _ Thank God I paid for insurance, _ was all Lena could think.  It was easier than processing what she’d just seen.

Kara came back over and touched her shoulder.  “I’m sorry,” she said gently. “I thought you already knew.”

“I didn’t know!” Lena sputtered.

“Yeah.  Well, Alex figured that out.  And I was gonna tell you this weekend but then…”  She squinted and gazed up into the rain, and then down into the basement where the red flashes were streaking around the base of the dam.  “Stuff happened.”

Lena nodded dumbly.  “So…”

“Baby, I gotta go help Barry.  We’ll talk when it’s all done, okay?”

What could she say?  “Okay.” Help Barry? What did Barry have to do with any of this?

But she couldn’t ask because her girlfriend leapt up into the sky and swooped down toward the basin, borne on nothing but air.

“What the hell am I supposed to do now?” Lena wondered out loud.  She heaved the driver’s side door open, with a little difficulty because the doorframe has dented inward a bit when the column of water pounded down on top of it.  She had a pair of field glasses in the glove box, thinking they might come in handy for a nature hike or something over the long weekend. She pulled them out, dried off the lenses, and peered through them in the general direction of “below.”

A number of small cabins and what looked like work sheds dotted the land in the basin, spreading out into the forest and toward the highway.  She watched in helpless alarm as the waters spread fast. There was the red streak of light again: up from the basin, onto the opposite ridge, back down, threading back and forth.  One or two at a time, she saw people pop into view on top of the ridge: the red streak would shoot up the side of the ridge, and then a child would appear, looking bewildered and holding a stuffed animal, and would not have fully gotten their bearings while the streak whipped back down and up again, appearing to deposit someone else.  She shook her head to clear it. The streak appeared again, and this time she saw Barry, in a suit much like the one Kara was wearing, only it was bright red. He was holding a small black dog. He handed it to a distraught, drenched woman who sobbed with relief and hugged him. He nodded to her and then disappeared again. 

Dr. Barry Allen was fast.  Very, very fast. And he was pulling people and pets out of the floodplain. 

Kara was harder to track without  a convenient trail of light to follow, but after a moment, Lena found her.  She and Barry were weaving in and out of the floodplain, pulling people to higher ground.  

She looked across to a group standing atop the dam, clearly the civil engineers trying to work out the best way to deal with the imminent disaster. She should be over there helping them, she thought.  She wasn’t a structural engineer but dammit, she thought, she ought to be doing  _ something _ .

One of them pointed up to the sky.  Lena glanced up with her naked eye and saw something small hovering in the air above the dam.  She peered through the glasses. It was Astra. Of course it was. Drenched and still in her blue jeans and tee shirt, both of which were looking fairly shredded, and carrying Alex in her arms.  Of course she was flying. Kara could fly. Of course.

Alex was wearing a suit of some kind but it was different form Kara or Barry’s.  It looked like it had mechanical supports on the limbs, and armor plating of some kind on the torso.  It looked a lot like some tech she had pitched the DEO at one point. She watched them descend to where the engineers were standing and then a brief negotiation occurred in which Alex pointed to a backpack on her back and unsheathed a long implement from her belt, brandishing it as she spoke urgently.  There was some disagreement among the engineers, but whatever it was, Alex was forceful enough that they seemed to capitulate and let her and Astra get on with whatever they had in mind. 

She scanned the opposite ridge again.  She saw Cat. What the hell was she doing here?  But there she was, pacing, speaking seriously into her phone, and moving calmly through what had gotten to be quite a little crowd on the other side.  She walked to the edge of the ridge and waved down to Barry, who stood in the basin, gazing up. Iris was with him, also wearing a black suit like Kara’s.  She was snapping pictures of the rescue efforts. 

Cat walked back to the crowd and was talking to the people, who were huddled around her, looking for reassurance or comfort or just information.  

At this moment, two sets of trucks rolled up:  a group of National Guard trucks on the ridge where Cat stood, and a bunch of Amazon Brewing Company SUVs down at the far end of the basin where the flooding hadn’t gotten too bad yet.  About a dozen of Diana’s friends got out of the SUVs and began unloading sandbags from the back, building a wall to try to keep that side of the basin intact. A few moments later, they were joined by a pack of their “hunting hounds” who emerged from the woods and began helping to move and stack the sandbags.  She hadn’t had proper perspective on how big those hounds were when they’d gone prancing past in the moonlight. They were enormous. And...awfully well trained. 

And the water continued to issue forth from the two valves in enormous white plumes. 

Soldiers jumped out of the National Guard trucks and Cat immediately approached them and began to explain what was needed, and then calmed the people so they could be organized into orderly lines to be loaded into the trucks to evacuate.

The largest crack in the dam was beginning to worsen and water began shooting out of places where the pressure had built up too much.  She saw Alex in her suit, rappelling down the face of it while Astra was standing on the near side of the dam, bracing herself. For what, Lena could only guess.  

She saw Kara descend from the sky on the other side of the dam and brace herself in a similar way; hands against the side of the dam, halfway between the middle and the base, feet planted in the rocks beside it..  Alex was wielding the tool, which Lena realized was at the end of a hose that connected to the backpack she wore. And as she was rappelling down the face of the dam, she was shooting some kind of foam into the crack.  Some kind of water resistant, fast-hardening polymer, Lena guessed. She slipped down and down, and then submerged for several moments under the water as Kara and Astra pushed from opposite sides of the dam, pushing the giant slabs of concrete together long enough for Alex’s foam to seal.  But after a moment, it appeared it did and water stopped issuing from the crack. 

Lena was impressed.  She was also a little faint and needed to sit.  She walked slowly back to the car and sat down on the cold, soaking wet hood.  It leached right through her jeans and she didn’t even care.

She watched through the field glasses as Astra swooped in, carried Alex back up to the top of the dam, and they began another pass.  There were two more cracks to fill. 

She thought she saw clusters of twinkling lights in the trees.  But maybe it was just everything getting to her head. She was feeling a little dizzy.  

By the time she heard the roaring overhead, she figured she’d seen everything.  A loud, whipping wind pressed down on her, and she looked up into some very bright lights.  They were recessed into the underside of an aircraft that was hovering in a way that things generally didn’t.   _ Oh _ , she thought woozily.   _ A UFO.  Of fucking course.   _

A hatch opened in the bottom.  Sara Lance’s face appeared on the other side of it.  “Luthor! Close your mouth, something’s gonna fly in!  Come on, I’m your ride out of here!” When Lena could only stand there gaping for a moment, Sara added, “What are you staring at?”

“Fuck you, Lance,” was the last thing Lena said before she fainted. 

  
  
  


****

  
  


_ “Well, thank Christ she’s alright.  If I know her, she’s probably mad she didn’t get to help seal up the dam.” _

_ “Not to give you a hard time, but Kara and her people had it under control.  You guys didn’t really need me.” _

_ “It was a bad situation.  How many people with time machines do you think I can call?” _

 

Lena shifted.  She was sitting in a soft chair.  She heard a soft, low humming in the background.  There was other chatter, further away, but closest to her were the voices of her two best friends.

“That’s her, eh?  Nice and tall,” a male voice with an English accent comment.  “I like ‘em tall.”

“Piss off, Mick,” Sara said sharply.  

Lena groaned and opened her eyes.  Cat was standing next to her, gazing down at her with concern, while absently soothing a small child with unearthly large blue eyes who was clinging to her leg.  Sara was standing a few feet away, wearing absolutely normal, time-appropriate clothing; jeans and a tee shirt with some kanji characters on it. 

“What the hell are you wearing, Sara?” Lena demanded.

“Ah, she lives!” Cat exclaimed dryly.  But she was clearly glad to see Lena awake and functioning.

Sara looked down at her outfit.  “What?  Clothes.”

“Where’s your Victorian upper-middle class clothing?” Lena demanded sassily.  “Or wait…” She realized that Sara’s hair was long again. “How come you have hair again, huh, Steve Trevor?”  She sat forward and the blanket that was over her dropped forward onto her lap. She looked around and realized that she was sitting in a room full of softly glowing consoles that looked like the bridge of the Enterprise, but the one in the 2009 movie, not the old one from the shows.  “And where the hell am I?”

Sara gestured around.  “It’s my ship. The Waverider.”

“Your time machine, I suppose,” Lena said sourly.

“Exactly.”  Sara peered at her.  “Come on, you knew I had a time machine!”

“I thought you were a method actor!” Lena exclaimed.  “People don’t just have time machines.”

“Well, I do!  Come on, you’ve seen me in all kinds of…”  Sara sighed. She looked at Cat with exasperation.

“I told you she didn’t know,” Cat purred, seeming pleased with herself.

“And you!”  Lena pointed at Cat accusingly.  “How long have you known?”

“For ages,” Cat answered breezily.  “I didn’t buy that she had a time machine, so I made her show it to me.”

“How come you never showed me until now?” Lena demanded.

“I didn’t have a reason to.  You seemed like you believed me so I didn’t need to prove anything to you.”

Lena and Sara both looked at her like she was an idiot.  

“And that explanation makes sense to you?” Cat mused.

Sara shrugged.  “It did at the time.”

Lena glanced at Cat again and stood up dramatically, flinging the blanket to the shiny floor.  “I… have seen too much….” She gestured around in mild frustration. “...shit… for one day.” She glanced at Cat and saw more of those little pinpricks of light floating over her shoulders.  “I’m not going to ask what those lights are over your shoulders. I don’t care. I’m done. I am going to go away now.” She marched off in the direction of what looked like an automatic sliding door.

“Where are you going?” Sara called after her, chuckling.  “You’re on a spaceship.”

“To see if it has a bar!”

  
  


*****

  
  


Cat eventually caught up with Lena, got her settled into a cabin, and somehow procured some scotch from somewhere.  Lena sat drinking next to the window, blanket around her shoulders, staring at the stars.

“So,” Cat began nonchalantly, “where would you like to start?”

“My girlfriend is a superhero.”

“Mm,” Cat agreed.  “An alien superhero.”

Lena frowned at her.  “You knew?”

“I didn’t know she was a superhero but for God’s sake, I knew she wasn’t human.”

“How?”

Sara entered the room.  Lena looked up for a moment, said nothing, and went back to interrogating Cat.

“Well,” Cat sighed, “for starters, I’m sorry but no human woman is built like that.  Her ‘sensory issues’ aren’t Aspergers-related, darling, she has super-senses and sometimes they get overloaded. Plus you saw her lift those kegs.”

Lena was confused.  “What about them?”

“They were full!” Cat exclaimed.

“So?”  Lena still sat looking blankly at her.

“Have you ever tried to lift a full keg of beer?”

Lena pounced, thinking she had an opening to regain her footing in this conversation.  “No, of course not. Have you?”

“Yes,” Cat responded archly, “I have, because unlike some people, I had something in college called  _ fun _ .  It’s a crime that you didn’t.”  Cat’s face softened then with a little sympathy.  “You were really too drunk at that barbecue, weren’t you.  You just couldn’t process all the things you saw that night.  You didn’t party in college, don’t really know your limits with beer…”  She shook her head. 

“So did you know about Barry?”

“Of course.  Again, not the specifics, but I knew he was something or other.”

“And…”  She looked at Sara.  “You’re really a time traveler.”

“Yep.”

“So… Diana isn’t a regular person either.  And neither are her friends.”

“Nope,” Cat confirmed.  “Amazons. Says so right on the trucks.”

“And Barry wasn’t kidding… about the werewolves?”

Cat just nodded.

Lena looked at Cat.  The little lights around her shoulders weren’t there anymore.  “I’m not even going to ask you about the fairies because honestly, I’ve had enough for one damn day.”

Sara chuckled.  “So? What are you going to do now?  Now that you have all this new information?”

Lena sighed.  “Cry for a couple days, then sleep for a week and then… I don’t know.”

“But more importantly,” Cat pressed, “what are you going to do about Kara?”

Lena sighed.  “I don’t know.  She was keeping a secret.”

“Badly,” Cat retorted.  “Didn’t you say she thought you already knew?”

Lena nodded.  Suddenly, the conversation they’d had the night Kara had gotten back from Nat City returned to her.  She wondered if Kara thought they were discussing something completely different than what Lena thought.  Those comments about being worried about her brother’s opinions of her … being different… “Oh my god,” she realized.  “She did think I already knew.” She pressed the heels of her hands against her temples. “She really did think I already put it together.  Shit.”

“So?  I mean, does this really change anything?” Cat asked. 

“She’s a superpowered alien, how can it not?” Lena sighed.

“Well, let’s see…” Sara thought a moment.  She walked over to the table and poured herself a drink from the bottle of scotch.  “You’ve already banged, so you know she doesn’t have any tentacles or anything.”

Lena made a face at her.  Cat snorted.

“She’s still hot,” Cat pointed out bluntly.  “And you watched her basically push an 80,000-ton dam back together today.  She rescued you. Everything she does with her powers is consistent with everything you thought about who she is anyway.”

“Honestly,” Sara chimed in, “I’ve met the human chicks you’ve dated and I’d say she’s really a step up in pretty much every way.”

“That Veronica was a hot mess,” Cat added.  “Gorgeous, but a hot mess.”

“Her secret’s out now.”  Sara came and sat on the edge of the bed.  “It’s always better when there aren’t secrets.  I mean, it was good before, wasn’t it?”

Lena nodded.  “It was great.”

Cat patted her hand.  “Did she use the L-word?”

“Lesbian?”

“Love, idiot.”

“Oh.  No, not… not yet.  I hadn’t either.”

“Well?  Do you?”

Lena thought.  “I don’t know. But… I thought maybe…”  She trailed off.

Sara shook her head.  “You’re making this harder than it needs to be.  One of your best friends is a time traveler. Your other one is hanging out with a guy with superspeed and his wife.”  Cat began to protest but Sara cut her off. “Look, getting cute couples into bed … or  _ whatever _ you’re doing with them … is absolutely a superpower.  And those fairies seemed to like you too.”

“I fucking told you I draw the line at fairies,” Lena said wearily.

“Your brother knows Superman.”

“They’re not exactly on good terms.”

“Still.”  Sara waved dismissively.  “So what? The world is big and strange.  You’re already in it. So what if your girlfriend is a superhero?  There are major benefits to that!”

Lena drained her glass and looked at them both.  “I need to think about this and sleep.”

“Text Kara first,” Cat ordered.  “Just tell her we’re taking you home and that you’ll talk to her tomorrow.”

When Cat issued an order, Lena did whatever it was she said.  No point arguing. She sent Kara text saying exactly what Cat said.  Kara texted back a moment later:  _ OK baby.  Take it easy.  Get some rest. _

_ You too, _ she wrote back.  And then she decided to forget that she was in space, and passed out again.

  
  
  



	17. Chapter 17

It was three a.m. when Dr. Barry Allen of Star Laboratories was preparing to go on television to talk about the persistent problems with the acidity of the soil which had likely led to failure in the base of the dam and the evening’s disaster, which could have easily been worse.  The news reports talked about the quick work of emergency services and the National Guard and Army Corps of Engineers, but the local coverage was notably devoid of any of Kara, Barry, or Alex and Astra’s work, much less the appearance of the Waverider. 

This, naturally, was par for the course.  Everyone in those parts knew they had supers who turned up for things like this, but the locals had long ago taken to simply referring to them as “the fast one” (Barry) and “the flyer” (Kara).  Now there was another flyer. But of course, there was sort of a polite, unspoken agreement that the supers didn’t get media attention and in return, they’d keep hanging around and doing their thing.  Wasn’t as if those flashy city superheroes like Superman were going to come down to Georgia to deal with a wildfire. You just simply had the good taste not to go poking your nose in.

Barry had changed into jeans and a clean button-down shirt, and was on the phone with Cat. Kara was leaning tiredly against a National Guard truck, watching the aftermath.  With the dam sealed up, the supers and the Amazons and even Divo, Kara’s neighbor, had turned up to help with search and rescue and initial cleanup efforts. And now Barry was about to be interviewed to talk about what he felt may have caused the break.

“OK… OK… I’ll do just like you said,” he was saying into his phone.  “Thanks, Cat.”

Kara smirked.  Cat had been giving him media coaching.  She nodded over at him. “You ready, Dr. Allen?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be, Dr. Danvers,” he said, looking tired but upbeat.

“Did she say how Lena was doing?”

“Yeah, I asked her if Lena was alright, and she said–”  He paused and tossed his head in a very Cat-like way and affected her breezy tone with eerie accuracy.  “–oh, not really, Bartholomew, but she will be. We’re taking care of her.”

Kara forced a little chuckle.  

“Dr. Allen?” called the reporter.  “You’re on in 30.”

He nodded.  He looked a little nervous.  Kara smiled. “I’d give you a hug, but…”  She gestured at the mud and water and debris all over the front of her black pressure suit.

He smiled back.  “I’ll take a rain check.”

“Baby,” Iris said gently from behind him, “we don’t need a rain check.  It rained. I checked.”

They laughed, quietly, exhaustedly among themselves.  

  
  


***

  
  


The sun was creeping over the edge of the cornfields by the time Kara and the rest of the posse found themselves back at the Danvers farm.  A fifties-themed diner in Ardassa had sent over mountains of cheeseburgers and breakfast sandwiches in thanks, along with several gallons of sweet tea and a large coffee dispenser filled with hot coffee, with no bill and no comment.  Kara was used to this sort of thing by now. Folks showed their appreciation in their own ways. 

So they all sat around outside on the wooden picnic tables, eating, leaning on each other, talking and joking tiredly with one another:  Barry, Iris, the Amazons, Divo and his wife, and about half a dozen hounds. Kara stood off to the side, watching everyone, munching on a chicken biscuit.  This was her fourth and she was finally slowing down, slurping on a cold sweet tea and allowing herself to feel replenished. 

Diana’s aunt, towering and golden-haired, was proclaiming that everyone assembled had made their ancestors proud that day.  Barry grinned at that. One of the hounds came up and placed its paws on the table, sniffing in the direction of the pile of sausage biscuits in the middle of it.  Iris looked up from her laptop and unwrapped one, and the hound delicately took it from her fingers and then swallowed it whole, its mouth working away for a few moments before it closed its eyes, then hopped up onto the bench next to Iris, stretched its neck, and then Kara watched its fur ripple and shift, absorbing into its body, and its shape changed into that of Lucy Lane, in DEO her blacks.  “Thanks, Iris.”

Iris went back to typing and absently scratched behind Lucy’s ear.  Lucy didn’t seem to mind. She unwrapped another biscuit for herself.

Kara sighed.  She decided it was time to change out of her pressure suit.  She trudged up the front steps of the house and clomped into the living room to find the coffee table shattered -- again -- and Astra flat on her back in the middle of it, with Alex laying on top of her.  

They weren’t fighting.

Alex’s shirt was, in fact, gone.  Or more accurately, torn in half and hanging off of one of the table lamps.  Alex’s head whipped around. “It ain’t what it looks like!” she shouted over her shoulder, trying unsuccessfully to clamber up off of Astra, whose arms were hooked tightly around her waist.

Astra’s shredded jeans were completely rent open on one side and Kara could see her hip and thigh quite clearly.  “It is precisely what it looks like, Brave One,” Astra retorted, unmoved.

Kara stood there, blinking for a moment, and decided that nope, nope indeed, she was not ready to deal with this right now.  “Okay, then.” She turned around and walked out the front door and back down the steps. “Y’all are makin’ my life much too country just now,” she muttered, feeling rather vexed her damn self.

She found Diana walking toward her, sipping on a cup of coffee as she walked.  “Kara,” she called, approach with long, easy strides. “Are you well? You look… nauseated.”

Kara gave her a weary half-smile.  “I don’t know what I am.”

“Your aunt and sister are inside,” Diana observed, smirking.

Kara rolled her eyes.  “I can’t even with that right now.”

Diana came close and threw an arm over Kara’s shoulder.  They started strolling back toward the picnic tables. “Do you not wish happiness for them?”

Kara sighed.  “Of course I do.  I… I guess there’s no real reason they shouldn’t…”  Diana’s arm was incredibly reassuring and warm. “I just don’t need to see it is all!”

Diana laughed, and Kara was annoyed but somehow found it reassuring.  A reminder of the lightness of existence. “My friend, they are grown women.  You can support and love them, but they will rise or fall on their own choices.”

Kara nodded.

“But that is not what really is bothering you, is it.”

“No.”  They took the meandering way around the barn laboratory.  “I just worry about things with Lena. I’m afraid I might have messed it up by not telling her the truth.  Or that maybe she just can’t handle all this.”

Diana nodded.  “I understand. But love takes work.  And as my wife likes to say, time has a way of working things out.”

“Your wife?”  Kara hadn’t known Diana was married.

“My former wife,” Diana amended.  “And future wife.”

Kara’s brain hurt a little at this.  “What?”

Diana smiled again, gave poor confused Kara a chaste peck on the cheek.  “Time travel complicates things. She and I have crossed paths many times, and her path does not always run concurrent to mine.  But-” She gestured at the air with her coffee cup to emphasize her point. “-if we can work through that, surely you and Lena can get past what amounts to a little cultural misunderstanding.  Isn’t that right, Barry?” she called to him as they came around the back of the barn.

Kara’s eyebrows went up.  Barry was standing with Diana’s aunt, brandishing a long wooden dowel rod.  “Barry Allen what in hell are you fixing to do right now?”

“I bet him that if he struck me with all his might with that stick that he would break it and not me!” Diana’s aunt chuckled.

“Antiope!” Diana exclaimed.  “No shaking down humans!” She gave her a reproving look.  She looked at Barry. “How much did she trick you into betting?”

Barry grinned.  “If I lose, I have to run to Astoria, New York and bring her back a proper… what’d you call it?  Spank-a-something-or-other?”

Kara snorted.

“Spanakopita.  See, little one?  It is not so bad.”

“Yeah!” Barry agreed.  “And if I win she has to move the fridge for us.”

Diana marched over and grabbed her aunt, who was still chuckling mischievously, and dragged her some feet away and was clearly laughing while scolding her.  

Barry ambled over to Kara.  “I’d hug you but you’re still in that mucked-up pressure suit.”

“I know,” Kara grumbled.  “I walked into the house to get changed and found another busted coffee table and my aunt and sister half-dressed and making out in the wreckage.  So.”

Barry hooted.  “I’m sorry,” he laughed, “but you know we all saw that coming a mile away.”

Kara shrugged.  “It’s alright I guess.  I just ain’t ready for walking in on ‘em  _ in flagrante _ , y’know?”

Barry nodded.  A little silence fell between them, filled by Diana and her aunt dickering back and forth in Greek.  

“It’s gonna be okay, you know.  With Lena.”

Kara sighed.  They walked out to the hammock and clambered in.  “You sure about that?”

Barry nodded.  “Cat said so. I mean, you gotta admit, it ain’t even like you just told her you were an alien.  She saw the whole business. She saw the whole local circus last night.”

“She saw it before,” Kara protested.

“Yeah, but not really.”

He was right.  “I messed up real good, didn’t I.”

Barry waved a hand around.  “I mean, look. You have good reasons for keeping that secret from folks that aren’t from around here.  If she’s smart and caring, I think she’ll understand that. But it was kind of a lot for her to take in at once.”

Kara sighed.  “I know.”

“Look, just tell her how you really feel.”

“Ugh, feelings,” Kara groaned.

“Yeah, feelings.”

“What feelings?” came Iris’s voice from behind them.

“Kara’s feelings.  She needs to fly out to National City and tell Lena how she feels.”

“Oh.  Yeah, obviously.”  Iris came over and kissed Barry and then looked at Kara for a moment.  “But,” she decided, “not looking like that. Let me hose your suit down before you go.”

  
  


****

  
  


Kara decided she’d better not just turn up on Lena’s terrace, but she flew out to National City (after letting Iris hose her down –– she was not going back into the house under any circumstances).  She wanted to be there while she waited to hear from Lena. It was still early in the morning when she arrived and the slightly slower pace of Nat City on the weekend was evident as the sun climbed lazily in the sky.  Fewer cars roamed the streets, and the weekend revelers were just starting to stumble out for brunch in all the blue-awninged waterfront cafes. She recognized the ridiculous steakhouse they’d gone to the first time she came here; they, too had a brunch special.  And although she’d only eaten a few hours ago, steak and eggs and a bloody mary heavy on the black pepper sounded good, so she went in. She realized as she looked at the menu that while this place was less fancy than what Lena would normally opt for, that it was still pretty damn expensive.  But she needed fortify herself, she decided.

Thirty five dollars for a brunch “special”.  At least she didn’t have to pay to fly out here.

This was their first date, she mused as she munched on the breadsticks the waiter brought.  Lena had been trying to seem “normal” and unintimidating, trying not to show off or be too flashy.  She had been pretending too. There were always layers you had to get through when you were with someone.  This was just layers. Her being an alien superhero was just a layer. Lena having her come to the “small place” was a layer.

Barry had sounded so sure that everything would work out with her and Lena.   _ Cat said so, _ he’d said.  Kara vaguely wished that Cat would walk in right now.  She could use a bracing pep talk with a side of tough love and a little solid advice sprinkled on top.  

A delicate, manicured hand reached over her shoulder and plucked a breadstick from her basket.  “Don’t look so morose, country girl. Hasn’t she called you yet?”

Kara sat up straight and almost wheeled around 180 degrees in her chair.  There was Cat. “What… what are you doing here?”

Cat shrugged, waved a dismissive hand.  “I was strolling by and suddenly had a mighty need for a breadstick.  What are you doing here?” She raised an eyebrow at the bloody mary on the table next to the breadsticks.

The waiter arrived with her food just then and set it down.  “Fueling up,” she said. “Hoping Lena calls.”

Cat snorted.  “She should have done that an hour ago like I told her to.”

Kara gave her a quizzical look.  “So, you don’t think I screwed up?”

Cat sighed dramatically.  “Oh, listen, farm girl, of course you did.  But Christ, it’s not unredeemable. Lena spent two weeks mooning about whether you were in a relationship after you’d already been to see each other twice and refused to simply tell you she wanted to be thought of as your girlfriend because–”  She made air quotes. “–what if she doesn’t want that?”

Kara smiled. 

“You two aren’t the  _ most _ useless lesbians I’ve ever met, but your communication skills need quite a bit of work.  So? Work on them together.”

Kara nodded.  You just did what Cat said.  She’d figured that out.

Cat whipped out her phone.  “Now let’s end this nonsense.  Siri, call Lena.” She paused, listening and tapping her foot.  “Luthor. Yes, it’s me…. Yes, I know what time it is….You never sleep this late….Yes, I know what you just went through, I was there….  What do you mean you went back to sleep after I called you? You do know you need to call her, yes? ….Well, what are you waiting for? Do I have to send a waiter to your penthouse with a phone on a silver platter?  …I don’t care ...You can’t just leave this sitting out there ...Well she’s obviously not going to call you, you said you’d call her so she’s going to wait…. You know I’m right…. Mmm.”

She hung up and dropped her phone back in her purse.  She grabbed another breadstick, and swiped a long draught of Kara’s bloody mary.  “Give it five minutes, ten tops.”

Kara jumped up and wrapped Cat in a bear hug.  “Thanks for coming along, Cat. I owe you one.”

Cat hugged her, and patted her on the back a couple of times.  “Alright, hippie Maddow. Finish your breakfast. She’s going to call you, and you don’t want to keep a lady waiting.”

Kara’s phone rang about five minutes later.  “Hey.”

Lena’s voice.  “It’s me.”

“I know.”

“So… do you… want to talk?”

“Yeah.  Can I come by?”

An awkward pause.  “Are you going to … fly?  Like, fly fly?”

“Well, I’m… yeah.  I mean, I’m already in town.  I was sort of waiting for you to call.”

“Oh.”  Another awkward beat.  “Well, will you use the door, or… you know…”

“The terrace?”  Kara chuckled a little.  “If it won’t freak you out.”

“Oh… well, no I guess it’s ok.  But no Superman three-point landing, okay?  That’s Italian terra cotta out there.”

Kara chuckled.  “I promise I’ll be gentle.”

Five minutes later, she was touching down gently on Lena’s terrace.  Lena was waiting outside for her, in sweats and a hoodie. Even tired, and without makeup, she was still the prettiest thing Kara had ever laid eyes on.  

“Nice landing.”

“Thanks.”  Kara approached cautiously, half worried that Lena was going to start throwing things at her.  “So… you alright?”

Lena nodded slowly.  “Yeah. You?”

“Well, aside from walking in on Alex and Astra with half their clothes off, I’m fine.”

Lena smiled faintly.  “The news didn’t say anything about your incredible feat.”

Kara nodded.  “Yeah. The locals try and keep us off the news.  We don’t want the attention, to be honest.”

Lena looked around, squinting, like she was trying to figure out what to say next.  “You uh… don’t want the credit?”

Kara shook her head. “We just look out for our community.  Don’t need reporters and paps crawling all over the place and whatnot.”

“Yeah,” Lena sighed.  “I guess Superman never gets a break.”

Kara shook her head.  “No, he sure doesn’t. Maybe that’s why he left me with the Danvers family when I got here.”

Recognition dawned on Lena’s face.  “He’s your feckless cousin.”

Kara nodded.  “Yep. I wish things had gone different, and Alex is sure salty as hell about him, but even back then, the world had its eyes on him.  He couldn’t have taken care of me like that.”

Lena moved a little closer, wary still.  “So you’re from Krypton.”

“Yep.”

“So you didn’t lie when you said your parents died in a fire.  It was just a very, very big fire.”

“I know I haven’t always told you everything,” Kara said, as gently as she could, “but I’ve tried real hard not to lie to you.”

Lena frowned.  “This was kind of a big thing.”

“I know.... I know it was.  And… I’m sorry. But… listen.”  Kara stepped a little closer and gingerly touched Lena’s shoulder.  The morning light was pale on her cheeks and caught the blue-green strands in her eyes.  “Any relationship is a… a process of getting to know each other, you know. It’s peeling away the layers and getting to the core of each other.  And it’s always a little at a time, you find each other, and you integrate the new information. What matters most is how we make each other feel.”

Lena gazed at her a long time, and her face was hard to read.  Finally she said, “So, I’m going to ask you some things, and you have to tell me the truth.”

“Yes.  Sure. Of course.”

“So you’re from Krypton.”

“Yes.”

“You have all the same powers as your cousin.”

“Yes.”

“And Barry?  Where’s he from?”

“Oh, he’s a human.  He just got powers from an accident at the lab.”

“And Lucy’s a werewolf?”

“Sort of.  Not exactly.  It’s, um, not exactly governed by the full moon.  More of a shape shifting kind of thing.”

"And Alex is DEO."

"Yes."

“Hm.  And fairies?”

“What about ‘em?”

“They’re real, and you have them in your woods?”

“Well, not just in our woods, they’re all over in the county.  But yeah.”

Lena shook her head.  “And how do I make you feel?”

Kara paused.  Barry had warned her that this was going to have to be about feelings.  “I… Since the very beginning, you make me feel … understood. Safe. I know we ain’t said it, but you make me feel loved.  I feel like we fit, and now that you know everything, it can only be better. ‘Cause I don’t have to hide anything anymore.  I don’t wanna hide anything anymore. I never had a girl I felt so much for, and if you … if you think you’re willing to stick around, I promise you won’t regret a minute of it.”

Lena’s eyes got glassy as she listened, and her expression softened.  “We haven’t said it because I wasn’t sure. I don’t know. Maybe a part of me subconsciously felt you were holding something back.”

“And I was.”  She squeezed Lena’s shoulder a little.  “But no more.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Her eyes were pleading with Kara as she spoke.  She wanted to say yes, she wanted to try to make this work, but she was scared, Kara could see it.  “I can’t, I mean it. I really can’t do this if you’re not going to–”

Kara softly caught hold of her other shoulder, pulled her in and kissed her.  “I promise you,” she whispered, “I’m not keeping a thing from you, not ever again, not one minute more.  I’m in love with you, for whatever that’s worth, and you don’t need to say it back if you don’t–”

Lena rocked up onto her toes and kissed her again.  “Shut up,” she mumbled, “I want to.”

More kisses.  “Okay.”

“I’m in love with you too, and I think I knew I was gonna fall…”  More kisses, turning a little warmer and more passionate. “...from the minute I met you.”

They ended up pressed against the sliding glass door, kissing like their lives depended on it.  “Hey,” Kara muttered, her heart soaring to be able to kiss Lena like this again.

“Hm?”

“Are we useless lesbians?”

Lena laughed and nipped at her lower lip.  “The  _ most _ useless.”

Kara chuckled and went in for more.  

“Wanna make yourself useful?”

“Mm.”

“Carry me inside.  I think we need to be doing this in bed.”


	18. Chapter 18

Lena, laying sprawled on top of Kara, buried her face in Kara’s chest and snuggled against her.  It was past lunchtime now, and she could hear Kara’s stomach growling. But she wasn’t quite ready to get out of bed.  “So, Bat Boy?”

“Nope, not real. Not so far as I know.”

“Hm.”  A few moments of silence went by in which Lena nibbled thoughtfully on Kara’s shoulder.  “Mermaids?”

“Mm, sort of.  Not exactly like you think of ‘em, but yeah.”

Lena’s fingers wandered around underneath the blankets.  “Mothman?”

Kara chuckled, and Lena wasn’t sure if it was because she was amused or literally tickled.  “Nope, that’s the fae folk -hey, stop it!- messing with y’all.”

“And,” Lena went on, her fingers continuing to wander, “what about Alex?  I know she’s DEO but… you made it sound like she was a social worker.”

Kara nodded.  “Well, she sorta is.  The alien residents need someone to look in on ‘em, connect them with resources, give ‘em medical attention if needed.  Alex has the qualifications for that. Her PhD is in xenobiology. DEO recruited her while she was still in college.”

“I always thought of them as more of a military organization.”

Kara wrapped both her arms and legs around Lena, lifted them a few inches off the bed, rolled them over in the air, and settled back down with Lena underneath her.

“Slick,” Lena remarked, smirking.

“Thanks.”  Kara smirked back.

“My question?”

“Wasn’t technically a question.”  Kara kissed her. “But the DEO is a… they have a lot of different functions, and the character of each branch has a lot to do with the local needs.  So Nat City probably gets targeted a lot by offworlders who are looking for trouble simply by virtue of the fact that it’s a wealthy major city. So they need more muscle.  But the DEO’s mission also includes keeping tabs on friendlies and that’s mostly what we get out my way. Alex has military training too, ‘course, that was required when she joined up, and sometimes she’s gotta use it but most of it is just keeping tabs on the offworlders, keeping them safe and healthy, and out of trouble and off the general population’s radar.”

It had never occurred to Lena that this would be an actual job, but of course it made sense.  She wondered what kind of tech would make Alex’s job easier.

“I see your wheels turning,” Kara teased.

Lena lifted her head and kissed her.  “Always. Listen, I can hear your stomach growling.  Let’s get some food.”

The door buzzer rang.  Lena sighed, and Kara reluctantly rolled off of her to let her get up and answer it.  It rang again as Lena sauntered off down the hallway. 

She flicked the monitor on and saw Sara and Cat standing downstairs in the lobby.  “What are you two doing here?”

“We figured it since it’s well past lunchtime by now that you two would be hungry,” Sara answered cheerfully.  She was dressed like Rizzo from Grease again.

“She’s lying,” Cat interjected.  “You called us to invite us to lunch fifteen minutes from now.”  Lena noticed that Cat was wearing a sharp little suit with a tightly belted waist and a polka dot blouse, with a little juliet cap set back on frighteningly perfect curls that screamed 1955.  She shook her head.

“You okay?” Sara asked.

“Yep,” Lena decided.  “Life is ridiculous, and it’s fine.”

“Good.  You and Kara throw on some clothes, we’ll meet you on the roof deck in five.”

Lena didn’t even ask.  It didn’t matter. It was ridiculous, and it was fine.

  
  
  


**

 

They’d brought everyone.  Lena didn’t bother to ask what kind of time fuckery was involved.  She just took the poodle skirt that Sara proffered and got changed.  She came out of the bathroom in her cabin on the Waverider to find Kara in blue jeans, a white tee-shirt and blue varsity jacket.  Lena’s breath caught a little.

They were having lunch in space; Alex and Astra in black leather jackets like James Dean, Lucy in a cute little sleeveless yellow summer dress with sharp white lapels.  Barry had a red varsity jacket and Iris sported a poodle skirt not unlike the one Lena wore.

“So… it’s a fifties themed diner… in space?” Lucy wondered as they sat down at a group of tables pushed together.

Sara nodded enthusiastically.  “Oh yeah. The Yoali picked up our broadcasts of Happy Days and couldn’t get enough of it.”  She gestured around. “Pretty good, right?”

They all nodded.

“And it’s the best cheeseburger you’ll ever have,” Sara promised, dropping her menu on the table without even looking at it.  “And if any of you pass on the milkshake, I’m disowning you immediately.”

Cat adjusted her pointy glasses and peered down at the menu.  “If this isn’t as good as you say, Lance,  _ I’m _ disowning  _ you _ .”

Lena grinned at her.  “So what now, Cat?”

Cat waved a gloved hand.  “The world is our oyster, darling.  I would ask you the same.”

Lena glanced sidelong at Kara, eyes twinkling.  “Oh, I don’t know. What do you think about headquartering in Atlanta?”

Cat pshawed.  “You can’t be serious.”

Barry and Iris’s heads snapped around.  “Why not?” Iris demanded.

“Wouldn’t you like being closer?” Barry added.

Taken aback for a moment, Cat protested, “But… I can’t just pick up and move my headquarters to Atlanta.”

“You’re Cat Grant,” Lucy remarked.  “I think you can do whatever the hell you want.”

Cat considered her.  “You have a point.”

  
  


***

  
  


“You’re doing  _ what _ ?”  Lillian Luthor demanded.

Lex was chuckling quietly into his chateaubriand.  

“Moving L Corp headquarters to Atlanta,” Lena responded evenly.

“To be closer to this...farmer you’re dating.”

“Yes, mother.”

Lillian huffed.  “I can’t believe you would do such a thing.”

Lena waved her fork around, the piece of lettuce bobbing around on the end of it.  “It’s an up and coming metropolis, mother.”

Lillian snorted.  “It has an airport and a Coca Cola bottling plant.”

“Hey, the Braves are in first place right now,” Lena shot back.  She ate her lettuce with emphasis.

“It’s a mediocre symphony though,” Lex commented, still amused.

“Oh, shut up, Lexy,” Lena said, without anger.

“Your brother is right… the culture there is hardly on par with National City.”

Lena considered blurting out that Kara was an alien.  She rather wanted to thoroughly scandalize her mother.  But she stopped. What would be the point? She shook her head.  “My girlfriend always says we should be living our best lives. My best life…”  She glanced at Lex, who was nodding with approval. “...includes a scientist farmer girlfriend, and headquarters in Atlanta.  End of discussion.”

Lillian began to protest.  “But-”

“End. Of.  Discussion.”

Lillian sighed with heavy disgust.  “Fine.” She gestured to Manuel. “Jeeves, more wine, please.”

 

*****

  
  
  


Lena stood next to Kara at the Farmer’s Market, in the shadow of the large skyscraper that was now being emblazoned with the L Corp logo.  It had only taken about six months to put it all in place. “Looks great, baby.”

Lena grinned.

“You didn’t need to do that, you know,” Kara pointed out for the umpteenth time.  “I can come fly out to you whenever I want. Hardly takes any time.”

“Yeah, but sometimes I want to be able to fly out to you.”   She watched in appreciation as Kara hoisted a couple of large crates of cantaloupe into her truck.  

“When’s Cat’s deal going through?”  

Lena shrugged.  “I don’t know. I think she’s in the process of strong-arming Ted Turner out of the CNN Building.”

Kara laughed.  “Course she is.”  She stopped in front of the last group of crates to go into the truck.  “You know, between you and Cat, y’all are bringing how many jobs to the city?”

“Oh, you know.  A few.”

“Two thousand?”

“Maybe three.”

Kara whistled.

“And we’re already in talks to expand the antiquities wing of Diana’s museum and bring in some guest conductors for the symphony.”

Kara hooted.  “Y’all don’t waste time, do you?”

Lena shook her head.  “Nope.”

Kara slipped an arm around her waist.  “This’d be the first time I ever heard of someone pouring millions of dollars into elevating a city’s cultural arts community out of sheer spite.”

“You love it though.”

“I do.”

  
  
  


****

  
  


Kara was placing some bourbon marinated chicken breast on the grill.  Lena emerged from the house with some cornbread. Eliza had given her the recipe and it smelled incredible.  She set it on the picnic table.

A cacophony of honking came up the dirt driveway and a van pulled up.  Cat, Barry, Iris and Lucy hopped out and jogged up to them. Nobody really knew what the story was, however many months later it was at this point.  They referred to themselves as a “pack.” Everyone kind of went with it, because why should that make sense any more than anything else? Whatever it was, it seemed to be working for them.

They exchanged hugs.

“Sara coming?” Cat inquired.

Lena shook her head.  “No, she’s chasing some girl through time, I guess.”

Cat hmphed.

Lena glanced at little pinpricks of light hovering around Cat’s shoulders.  “Brought some fairies tonight?”

“Did I?” Cat said nonchalantly.  “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Where are Alex and Astra?” Barry wondered aloud.

Everyone glanced around and realized they were nowhere to be seen.  Iris snickered. Kara flushed a little and mumbled something. Her aunt and sister had become one of  _ those _ couples, the ones who couldn’t keep their hands off each other and disappeared awfully frequently.  

“Don’t anybody go anywhere near the hayloft,” Iris chuckled.

“Shut up y’all,” Kara grumbled, and went back to her grilling.

Lena came up behind her and slipped her arms around Kara’s narrow waist, enjoying rubbing her rock-hard abs through her tee-shirt.  “It’s alright, baby. I know you’re happy for them.”

Kara smiled.  “Yeah, I am. And I’m happy for Cat and them, too, though I don’t begin to get it.”

“Even Sara.  I hope she catches the girl she’s chasing.  I want this for everyone, what we’ve got.”

Kara nodded and shifted the chicken a little bit with the tongs.

“You don’t really need those because you can’t burn yourself,” Lena observed.

“True,” Kara agreed.

“That’s sexy,” Lena decided.

“But what’s not sexy is me putting my hands all over people’s chicken.”

“Hmm, true.  I want you putting your hands all over something, but not my chicken.”

“I’m pretty sure you haven’t got a chicken.”

“You’re a jackass.”

“Yep.  But I’m your jackass.”

“Yep.”

The grill smoked and Kara turned a few pieces of chicken halfway over.

“Wanna be Mrs. Jackass?”

Lena squeezed her tightly.  “Are you kidding?”

“Nope.  Whaddya say?”

“You’re crazy.”

“I’m not hearing a no.”

“Yeah, you’re not hearing a no.”

They leaned into each other and smiled.  Life was ridiculous, and it was fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you've enjoyed this fic! Please consider subscribing to my profile. in addition to the upcoming plans we have for some Oceans 8 fics, all the ships in this story will be getting their own longfics in this universe; supers, fairies, werewolves, the DEO, and lots of other rad surprises.
> 
> Plus a separate General Danvers longfic about reincarnation is in the planning stages. So there is lots of good stuff coming!
> 
> <3 <3 <3

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Sweet Tea and Cruffins](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13893060) by [thebraveandthebroiled](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebraveandthebroiled/pseuds/thebraveandthebroiled)
  * [Black Coffee and Sticky Buns](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15251505) by [thebraveandthebroiled](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebraveandthebroiled/pseuds/thebraveandthebroiled)




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